"The Aardwolf (Proteles cristata) is a member of the family Hyaenidae. The spotted hyena, which the author documented in the previous entry as capable of generating a bite force sufficient to crack elephant bone, is also a member of the family Hyaenidae. The author notes this without immediate comment. The aardwolf eats almost exclusively harvester termites — up to three hundred thousand per night — using a long sticky tongue and a set of teeth that have been reduced, through evolutionary pressure, to small peg-like structures largely unsuited to anything requiring force. It looks like a small striped hyena. The initial field identification in this entry was 'small striped hyena.' This required revision. The revision was considerable."
The first note had been confident.
"Small striped hyena. Dusk. Drainage line, moving north. Unusual markings — more heavily striped than previous hyena observations. Body weight estimated significantly lower. Investigating."
He had investigated.
The investigation had required him to revise the entry, then revise the revision, and finally sit for some time with a reference work he had been carrying since Cape Town, reading the relevant section twice and then looking at the animal, which was still at the drainage line, and reading the section a third time.
"Not a hyena," he wrote. "Hyaenidae. Family, yes. Hyena, no. The family went two directions. The spotted hyena went one way. The aardwolf went completely the other way. This is the other way."
He watched the display from twenty metres.
The puff adder was on the warm sand of the game trail — the same positioning the Colonel had documented in an earlier entry, the ectotherm taking the path's stored heat in the evening cool. The aardwolf found it at the same time the Colonel did and responded by becoming, apparently, a different and larger animal.
The mane went up first — the long erectile hairs along the dorsal ridge rising to their full extent, adding perhaps forty percent to the visible profile. Then the back arched. Then the legs stiffened into the specific high-stepping walk of something presenting maximum visual information to whatever it was presenting to. The aardwolf was, by these measures, considerably more impressive than it had been thirty seconds earlier.
The Colonel noted the open mouth during the display — the lips drawn back, the teeth available for inspection.
He looked at the teeth.
He wrote: "Dentition: reduced to peg-like structures. Minimal functional capacity. The display, which suggests significant bite force, is not supported by the available equipment. The aardwolf appears unaware of this discrepancy."
The puff adder continued sunbathing. It had, presumably, reached its own view of the available equipment.
After one full minute of sustained display — the Colonel timed it — the aardwolf lowered its mane. It looked at the snake. The snake did not move. The aardwolf stepped around the snake with the precise, high-stepping delicacy of something that has decided the confrontation is satisfactorily concluded and is now simply leaving by a different route. It disappeared into the drainage line scrub and resumed its foraging.
The Colonel wrote: "Outcome: resolved. The aardwolf retains its dignity by not waiting to see if the snake agrees."