The two tour cars rolled down the tracks, exotic foliage brushing past their hoods as they entered the primary region of the paddocks. A gate seemed to block the path, spurring some confusion and concern from Dr. Sattler as to if there was some malfunction that might lead them to hit it. Hammond had warned them some bugs might be afoot. Her concerns however were abated when the doorways parted just before the car could touch them, sliding past the guard rails to open.. only to curiously snap shut again the moment one car passed through them. It opened once again without issue to let the second car through, snapping shut once again as soon as the final car was through.
The tour vehicles' tires bounced and thumped repeatedly over metal bars separated by several inches each, laid down next to each other for the first couple of meters from the gate.
"Quite the security," the paleobotanist remarked with a perked brow, observing how Gennaro and Malcolm were both watching the piping the cars rolled over.
"What's with the bumpy ride?" Gennaro huffed, frowning and no doubt thinking this was some half-finished flub on the construction.
"Seen those in zoos," Dr. Sattler noted with a slight nod, "The spacing makes it hard for animals to walk over them, keeps them away from the gates whilst tires can just roll over the pipes."
"Yeah it's pretty safe too.. But that leaves two other questions," Malcolm leaned back in his chair and looked ahead studiously, "Why the quick closing doors and why are we seemingly inside one of the paddocks?"
"Drive-thru safaris are hardly new," Gennaro shrugged his shoulders as he looked about the greenery for a sign of what exactly they were looking around here for, "Hammond owns a few I've been to before, makes sense he'd use one here."
Sattler nodded along affirmatively. The train of logic was pretty good and this could be a thrilling experience, but there was just one thing that had her curiosity.. and concern. Drive-thru safaris often worked so well because the animals were very well managed, trained, and were herbivores of a very even temperment. Deer, emu, gazelles, giraffes, and the like. She could vividly recall some consulting Dr. Sarah Harding had once done for a wildlife park near one of the places she and Alan were doing a dig at. They'd wanted the students to hear from a modern zoologist to understand ecologies of the modern day to grasp the ancient.
"If I had to trek through the wilds and happened upon hundreds of wildebeest in my way, I'd walk through them without much worry. If I had to go through a spot with a whole herd of american bison, I'd go around them very carefully. If it was even just a few african cape buffalo, I wouldn't get anywhere near them!" Harding had explained with a paleness to her face that spoke of frightful experience.
Sattler scanned the foliage, seeing signs of browsing by a fairly large; though not gargantuan creature in the torn leaves and split ferns. The forest floor was pock marked by what looked like bird footprints that dug into the dirt.
Sattler squinted to look through the dense undergrowth, "Wonder what's in here? Has to be a herbivore."
"Hammond said on the tour all the carnivores were in the newest two paddocks, can't imagine he'd send guests into one of those like-"
"Pizza delivery?" Malcolm snarked, cutting Gennaro off, "I don't think that's what's got the good Doctor Ellie Sattler concerned."
Gennaro perked his brow and looked to Sattler, seeing the very puzzled look on her face, brow pinched by folds of skin as she seemed just as keen to look at the foliage as to what might be beyond it. He knew a careful observer when he saw one, had to when practicing law. And he'd been set to get experts to assess this place, it seemed he was getting just that now.
Gennaro puzzled, "Something about the plants Dr. Sattler?"
"They're lovely to look at. Kind you'd want to see in a primordial jungle because they were there. Problem is, a lot of these things out there are poisonous.. West Indian Lilac, and- there!" she pointed at a tall stalk with wide-set leaves that formed defined layers, "Giant Hogweed, looks nice and great for shade. Dates back to the Cretaceous. Problem is it's one of the most toxic plants in the USA."
Gennaro puzzled and eyed the odd plant as it passed by the car, "Symptoms?"
"Rash, burns, blisters; even blindness and nerve damage if the sap gets into your eyes or a cut," Sattler frowned, "Touching it is only toxic during daytime usually, but I'd imagine that's why we don't see much pruning here."
Gennaro instinctively leaned back as the car pushed through some foliage, the hogweed slapping against the hood of the car.
"This much of it though?" Sattler frowned, "Its seeds are being spread a lot."
"Think the storms are blowing them around?" Malcolm called out from the back, the chaotician leaning back on his seat with his arms behind his head like he'd just won a bet. He suspected the answer already, deduced it. And yet he'd still had asked anyway.
"No, plants spread quicker through herbivory. Digestive tract carriage."
"You mean something is eating that stuff?!" Gennaro muttered with a cocked brow, "But you just said how toxic it is. Wouldn't that make it unsafe for the animal in here?"
"To most animals… Look," Sattler pointed at an upcoming clump of the stuff.
Sure enough, as Gennaro lived and breathed, he could see obvious cut marks into the heinous plant that lopped through the stem. It looked like someone took a machete to it and for a split second he thought maybe Hammond had gotten a pruner in here after all. Except, on closer inspection, he could very clearly make out what looked like enormous bird tracks scattered around the plant. Tracks that lead off towards a thicket around a stream. The cuts weren't from a gardening pruner, but from a beast. Something bit into a huge stalk of toxic plant, and bit right through it.
"If you look around you, you might catch a glimpse of one of the first dinosaurs on our tour! Called, Oviraptor! One of the most well known Mongolian dinosaurs, Oviraptor got its name because it was mistaken for an egg-eating carnivore! Later inspection proved the eggs the fossil were found on were actually its own, showing the creature was a dutiful parent."
Sattler squinted, looking closely at the thicket near a steep descent bordering a river. She thought she glimpsed something, but couldn't be sure.
"While no breeding in Jurassic Park means we can't see this behavior, we've since made other discoveries the fossils could never tell us! We discovered Oviraptor has a peculiar defense mechanism. Storing fluid in a sac similar to a gizzard, it can forcefully eject the stored material similar to what's seen in some birds like vultures and petrels. Please keep your windows rolled up when observing this dinosaur!"
Malcolm puzzled for a moment before leaning forward. Sattler and Gennaro watched him climb over the front seat and reach for the controls on the center console. Gennaro saw him reach for the window controls and let a passing thought race through his head.
'Windows are probably locked upon entering the paddock. Gotta be. Don't want guests getting puked on by some kind of demented bird. Hammond wouldn't forget to-'
The window beside them rolled down, slowly. Malcolm let a few seconds slip by as Gennaro sat there with his eyes widened. The viridian of the forest looked even greener now, and the musk of hot, humid air pushed past the lawyer's face.
Sattler thought she glimpsed a pair of eyes leering at them from the thicket as Malcolm let the window gradually rise back up. The sense someone or something had its attention upon you in an undesirable way didn't let up until the cars exited the paddock.