The Most Marvellous & Amazing Mantelope

The Words:

Mantelope (half man half antelope).
Thalidomide
Pigeon
Joe Gibbons
Testes
Igloo
Twix
Flagellum (the tail of a sperm)


The Story:

Joe Gibbons was an eccentric scientist that had moved from his state of the art facilities in California to Antarctica. He was still working as a scientist, but he wanted to experiment with birds to find the effects of the drug Thalidomide will have on them. Because of the severe effects on children after mothers had taken the drug, this study was not legal in the states.

Since moving to Antarctica Joe fell under the radar somewhat, and he was free to experiment in anyway his wanted. His Lab was extremely high-tech considering it was inside an igloo. He had made a lot of money in the states and had had masses of equipment out to him. He even had a generator which runs off of petrol. The petrol was brought in for him by a strange female acquaintance. She returned roughly once a month.

Joe wanted to start his study. Normally he would opt for a bird like a pigeon, but out in Antarctica the next best thing was a penguin. He set up traps around the parameter of his igloo to catch them. He found that the best way to entice them into the traps was to use cut up pieces of Twix. He knew that they liked chocolate and he could not bring himself to use Penguin biscuits, as he felt it was almost cannibalistic.

Early tests went well. He injected the drug into female penguins and excreted sperm from the male penguins’ testes. This way he could see the effects that the drug will have on the penguin chicks. He had set up a whole incubation section in the igloo. This combined with a practiced artificial insemination technique meant he no longer needed to catch any more penguins. He found that the effects were similar to that in human babies, but most surprising was the effect the drug was having on the male penguins’. By accident he had injected a few male penguins’ with the drug. When he realised his mistake he carried on extracting their sperm, but when the sperm was analysed under a microscope he found that the flagellum of the sperm had detached.

After a few months of consideration he asked his female acquaintance to bring him a female antelope and some frozen antelope sperm. She said that there was no way she could get a live antelope to him, but he insisted. A month later somehow she managed to get them both to him. Nobody knew what he was planning. He would not entertain on even letting his acquaintance know.

The effects of the antelope were soon apparent. He was going to create a mantelope. By splitting the flagellum off his own sperm and attaching it to the other half of the antelope’s sperm he had managed to get the female antelope pregnant. This resulted in the very first mantelope.

Unfortunately for Joe his discovery led to his demise. Once the Mantelope had eaten every penguin in the site it turned on its creator and swallowed him whole. To this day nobody knows what happened to Joe, and why the only Mantelope was in Antarctica. Joe’s female accomplice has a good idea what had happened, but chose to rake in the money by discovering the first ever mantelope.

The Picture: