On the first day of our trip, my coworkers and I casually walked around a forest. It wasn't a deep forest, so we didn't need a guide. I was really amazed by a beautiful birdsong that I'd never heard. Here's it is:
As you can hear, it has a descending melody like a rolling glass ball. However, we couldn't see the bird that made this sound at the time.
Later that night, I went on a tour, in which a guide took us to a mountain by jeep and told us about the local wildlife. It was called the Amami Rabbit Night Tour, and the highlight of the tour was the Amami rabbits. They were interesting, too, but I was more excited to actually spot a Ryukyu ruddy kingfisher. They don't sing at night, so the guide mimicked their song for us. It went something like Khyo-roh-roh-roh-roh-roh-roh and we immediately recognized it as the sound we had heard earlier that day. We couldn't see them, but it was oddly exciting to place the bird with the song — as if the mystery was solved.
I had heard that Amami rabbits make a distinctive sound as well and was looking forward to hearing it, but I couldn't make it out — partly because they aren't very vocal, and partly because the jeep kept idling even when it wasn't moving. It moved very slowly, and when we came upon an animal, it would stop, but the guide wouldn't cut the engine because if he did, the animals would be spooked by the sudden sound change and hightail it.
Long, long ago, Amami-Oshima was part of the continent, then, about 15 million years ago, it broke away and became an island. So, Amami rabbits have retained their ancient rabbit features: Their ears aren't very long and their legs are short, so they can't run that fast. They make a sound, which is unusual for rabbits today. My coworkers were cooing over how cute they were, but I didn't think they were all that. Their appearance was just intriguing and funny to me. They looked like a picture of a rabbit drawn by a young child. Their bodies were round, with stubby legs and paws simply jutting out.
We also saw frogs, other birds, and a boar. I enjoyed the tour very much. It was raining, but Amami-Oshima is quite a rainy area to begin with, and furthermore, June is the rainy season in Japan, so I have to say we were lucky that it wasn't raining cats and dogs the first two days. Ryukyu ruddy kingfishers are migratory. They stay on Amami-Oshima over the summer and are most vocal during the rainy season. I didn't know that, but I was really happy I got to hear their song.
I struggled a lot with whether to use the singular or plural form for animal names and the word sound.
I think you did a great job. Both the singular and plural are correct when referring to flora and fauna, but the singular tends to sound a bit "documentary" and formal, if you know what I mean. In every day speech, we tend to use the plural. As for the sounds, birds normally sing and have a song, while other animals make sounds. Great post!
title: The Ryukyu Ruddy Kingfisher and the Amami Rabbit
Thank you so much for taking the time, Uly! There's so much to learn. My next post will be also about animals, so I'll carefully review this post before writing it.
Great job! I’ll give it another look now that it’s corrected and see if there’s anything else we can improve.
The sound of that bird is kinda scary... like a monster mimicking a human to lure you in to KILL YOU! lol, but yeah I agree that the rabbit isn't very cute. If it had longer legs it would look a lot like the wallabies we have around here
Wallabies also have longer tails than the Amami rabbit, but now you mention that, they look alike.