A smelly bat. Becomes an election issue in EoH and is near extinction due to de-forestation in NoP.
The stink-bat was undoubtedly an endangered species. Furthermore, sober analysts believed it to be important to Chalakanesia's ecology, for stink-bats ate rainbow moths, and the children of rainbow moths ate trees. But the stink-bat had the misfortune to be an exceedingly ugly animal which, true to its name, had a very foul smell. Furthermore, it bit people, and was rumored to carry rabies.
A bipartisan approach to an important public issue? Heineman found it hard to believe that Gorkindachina was capable of anything so reasonable. According to report, the election speeches Gorkindachina had been making to men at the northern forest camps had consisted of rhetoric not far removed from raving - wild stuff about sacrificing human beings on the altars of the stink-bat. [EoH Ch4]
'So I do!' bellowed Gorkindachina. 'I cut them for Chalakanesia. My cutting means jobs for Chalakanesia, money for Chalakanesia, wealth for Chalakanesia! But now Heaven and Hell want to tell us what we can cut, and when! They want to ban us from the mountain forests on account of the stink-bat! New forests, that's what they say. But who would plant those new forests on our land? They would! Who would own those forests? They would! I say, Chalakanesians shall never be slaves!'
'I say,' said Gorkindachina, warming to his task, 'cut the mountains to the bone, and the hell with the stink-bat!'
'Burn the stink-bat!' bellowed Heineman.
Heineman was not going to risk votes by speaking up for the stink-bat. The stink-bat was undoubtedly an endangered species. Furthermore, sober analysts believed it to be important to Chalakanesia's ecology, for stink-bats ate rainbow moths, and the children of rainbow moths ate trees. But the stink-bat had the misfortune to be an exceedingly ugly animal which, true to its name, had a very foul smell. Furthermore, it bit people, and was rumored to carry rabies.
'Burn the stink-bat, he says!' said Gorkindachina. 'A yes-man, that's our Heineman. I tell him to burn stink-bats, and stink-bats he burns. He's our national stink-bat burner!'
'Heineman's a yes-man!' bellowed Gorkindachina. 'A professional stink-bat burner!'
'Well,' said Gorkindachina, 'so now we know Heineman's a stink-bat burner. Now we know he's a yes-man.' [EoH Ch10]
'There are not plenty of moji,' said Atlanta. 'They're a protected species, if you let Wolfganga keep exporting the things they'll all be dead, an extinct species. Like the stink-bat!'
'There's no proof that the stink-bat is extinct,' said Heineman. NoP 8
'Yes,' said Atlanta. 'He's been offered, and has accepted, the job of supervising the planting of pines in the northern mountains. The forestry project is, by the way, my idea. It is doubtless too late to save the stink-bat, but we must do something with the lands which the regime of the last three years has allowed to be so recklessly deforested. Do you follow me so far?' [NoP Ch18]