ASTR-201 Lessons

2.4: Magical Beasts and the Moon

Good evening, students, and welcome to another night of Astronomy class! During this class and for the next two weeks, we will be focusing on how astronomy and, specifically, the phases of the Moon connect to other classes and disciplines at Hogwarts. As I said back in Year One, astronomy is an interdisciplinary subject. Of course, I am not an expert in these fields myself, so please feel free to reach out to the professors of these classes should you like to know more specifics about their chosen subjects. Next week we will also have our midterm, which will cover Lessons One through Five of this year.  That being said, let’s begin!

On the first stop of our whirlwind tour of interdisciplinary astronomy we’ll be looking at how the Moon and its rhythms affect creatures, specifically beasts.  Of course, nearly all animals are subject to the influence of the Moon in some way, whether it’s those that are impacted by the tides, nocturnal creatures on the opposite side of the day/night cycle, or beasts that consciously or subconsciously time things like reproduction or migration to specific phases of the Moon. However, while these are all fascinating in their own right, we will specifically be focusing on the wonderful - and sometimes weird - lunar-related habits of magical beasts tonight.

Mooncalf

Source: here

The first of these magical beasts is the Mooncalf, who (as made clear by their name) have no shortage of interesting relations to the Moon. The most obvious of these is their famed droppings, but there’s more to these strange, alien-like creatures than that! Mooncalves are found all over the world, which has given many cultures the opportunity to study them, which is fortunate because of their incredibly reclusive nature. Apart from one day -- or rather, night -- of the month, Mooncalves hide themselves away in their tunnels, or burrows. Now this is not because they’re embarrassed by their looks, though from the picture above and the one below, you can see that a Mooncalf has a strange alien-like appearance; it has smooth, light grey skin and long gangly legs. No, instead this actually has to do with the phases of the Moon! 

You see, Mooncalves are so-called because their entire existence is shaped around this important celestial body. Every night of the full Moon, all able-bodied Mooncalves are drawn aboveground to perform one of the most spectacular mating rituals known to the magical world. Why during the full Moon, you ask?  The Moon’s magic is strongest during that phase, strong enough to invigorate them and stir them into a frenzy, dancing the night away, creating intricate patterns in the hope of finding a mate who will complete their pattern. But, much like Cinderella, once the night is over, they must return to their burrows. No, they don’t turn into a pumpkin if caught above ground, or turn to stone, or anything quite so dramatic! But essentially, this mating dance expends nearly all of their energy. They will typically have just enough oomph left to graze before returning to their subterranean domain and falling into a stupor in order to build their strength back up. But why do we care about this gangly quadruped’s habits? Well, because they’re quite beneficial to us, of course!

The Importance of Mooncalves

In your first year of Herbology, you learned that Mooncalf dung can be made into fertiliser. If collected as directed, it makes magical plants grow much faster. Although it is not as powerful as dragon dung, it is great for magical plants that need a delicate touch. However, the distinct silver-laced fertiliser is hard to find, as you cannot get Mooncalf dung any day of the month; if you want it, you will have to collect it before sunrise during a full Moon. Mooncalves will not be in their burrows during a full Moon, giving you the opportunity to harvest their dung for fertiliser.  Please, though, do not collect Mooncalf dung from other people’s property - that is a serious crime!  

For the rest of the month they are in their burrows, hiding from the outside world – they are shy, antisocial creatures. We do not know much of what they do underground, but since they do not leave their burrows for approximately a month, there will be a month’s worth of Mooncalf dung in each burrow available for collecting during the full Moon. They would be terrified if you entered their homes while they were inside, so please wait until they leave before removing their dung.

But if you have such a narrow window to collect your prize, and Mooncalves are so reclusive, how can you find them? Well, this comes down to knowing a bit more about their mating rituals. To perform their pageantry, they stand up on two legs and do a rather difficult and intricate dance. In fact, each dance pattern is so complex that experts who evaluate them have explained that every Mooncalf has a different dance and therefore a different pattern.  

Because of this, you can tell where Mooncalves have recently been thanks to the intricate tracks left behind in magical people’s pastures or, in some cases, in Muggles’ agricultural fields. The tracks are in the form of geometrical designs, which Muggles call crop circles or crop formations, and which some Muggles believe were made by aliens! Perhaps some have caught a glance of these strange creatures dancing? Back to the topic at hand, however, you can follow these tracks to find likely spots to check for droppings. After midnight, your likelihood of actually seeing the creatures themselves decreases, as they have either already paired up or are starting to quickly gorge themselves on the nearby crops in order to have enough energy to snuggle up in their burrows for another month.

Mooncalf Drawing

Source: here

Analysis of these fluorescent faeces may give us hints as to why Mooncalves behave the way they do. Wizarding researchers have not only been able to experimentally determine the composition of Mooncalf dung to find traces of silver but have also discovered that the silver plays a large role in its effectiveness as a fertiliser. Those of you taking Alchemy will soon learn that the Moon is actually associated with the element silver. Many researchers have used this fact to deduce that Mooncalves’ exposure to the full Moon helps them to produce their signature fertiliser. In particular, it is very likely that they need the magic inherent in moonlight to metabolise their food, thereby generating the silver and other magical properties of their dung.

Despite how strange looking they appear, Mooncalves are only rated XX by the Ministry of Magic, indicating that they are harmless beasts. So, if you happen to be lucky enough to see them during a full Moon, please do not hurt or disturb them! They are small, delicate creatures that will probably run from a human.  But, if you can manage it, feel free to watch them dance from a distance. 

A final warning before we move on - whatever you do, don’t try to collect Mooncalf dung during a lunar eclipse! Although clouds don’t prevent the full Moon from giving these nocturnal beasts enough magic to do their mating dance and breed, Earth’s shadow does.  Rose Bloom was the unfortunate herbologist to learn this fact soon after having graduated from Hogwarts. Being a true plant partisan, she paid very little attention to the comings and goings of the Moon outside of the little she needed to know to care for her herbs. As you can imagine, her limited knowledge of astronomy did include the fact that she needed a full Moon to collect the Mooncalf dung she needed to fertilise her delicate plants.  

Thus it was that she consulted her moon chart, and on the night of a full Moon took a shovel and pail to a pasture where she knew that the cute little creatures would be dancing.  Sure enough, there they were.  She hurried to an empty burrow and started filling her pail with dung.  Little did she know from inside the burrow that the Moon was in the process of being eclipsed.  Above ground, the Mooncalves felt their energy levels declining to the point that they could no longer dance, so they turned tail and headed back towards their burrows to wait out the eclipse.  

The first of the creatures entered the burrow just as Rose finished filling her pail.  Terrified by the intrusion of an unknown human in their home, it rushed back outside, squealing with fright.  As she climbed out of the burrow, the remaining Mooncalves uttered similar shrieks as they scattered in every direction.  She felt terribly guilty about having frightened those poor, harmless beasts, but she consoled herself with the thought that it wasn’t entirely her fault, since she couldn’t have known that they would return to their burrows during a full Moon.  Then she looked up and saw that half the Moon was coloured blood red.  It dawned on her that the eclipse might have somehow been responsible for the Mooncalves’ return.  Did it frighten them?  No, they didn’t start squeaking until they saw her.  And then another explanation occurred to her, and it filled her with pride.   “Aha!” she thought.  “I just discovered something new!  Lunar magic is reduced by an eclipse!  I must tell my former Astronomy professor!  He’ll be so proud of me!”

She sent him an owl with a message telling him about her discovery.  When her owl flew back with a letter, she eagerly opened it, expecting to be praised.  Great was her disappointment when she read his reply: “That’s been known for more than twenty years. Every year since then, all the astronomy professors have included it in their lessons.”

A Lunar Menagerie

Now that we’ve very thoroughly covered one of the magical world’s most popular moon-related creatures, it’s time to look at some of the lesser-known ones. To start off this addendum, we’ll look at common camouflaging creatures.

You may have already learned a bit about Diricawls, Demiguises, or Tebos - all creatures that use magic to camouflage themselves. But did you know that the Moon has an interesting effect on these types of creatures? As you know, the Moon waxes - or grows larger - until it reaches a full Moon and then wanes - or grows thinner - until culminating in a new Moon. During the waning period, many of the creatures that utilise magical concealment experience a slight decrease in their efficiency. This is believed to be an energy-saving measure. When there is less light from the moon, creatures (and indeed tree roots, rocks, and other hazards) are more difficult to see, meaning that these creatures do not need to expend as much energy keeping themselves hidden. This is not necessarily done to extremes, as their magic is still active, but they are much easier to see on these nights - that is, if you have means of seeing in the dark! Naturally, this is most true on the night of the new Moon, as they need to compensate the least on completely dark nights. This is a bit of handy knowledge for anyone hoping to study these creatures or needing to capture one for whatever reason. It’s also worth noting that Diricawl feathers and Demiguise hair - if collected for their camouflaging properties - will be slightly less potent when used in potions or invisibility cloaks if they are harvested during a new Moon. 

Other animals with interesting lunar-based habits include sea creatures like corals - yes, corals! - and the Enret, a magical fish. Let’s start with corals and get some quick explanation out of the way. It may surprise you to know, but what we think of as underwater foliage is actually a very simple invertebrate. These creatures often form reefs and are sadly in danger of extinction in many areas of the world; but fortunately, many of the magical varieties have their own sort of protection built in. This is one of the reasons we’ve had the ability to study the various magical corals that make up the Laston Reef off the coast of Africa near the Indian Ocean. One such coral is called the Nixhook Coral and has an interesting magical property I know you’ll appreciate: it changes colour! Magizoologists aren’t quite sure why - many of the wonders of the deep are mysteries to scholars - but these corals shift colours in time with the four main phases of the Moon: new, first quarter, full, and third quarter. Each of them has its own set of four colours as well, alternating through the spectrum of visible light in very predictable ways, which makes them easy to identify when observed over time next to their non-magical brethren. 

Nixhook Coral in its purple phase

Source: here

There’s much more to these corals that makes them fascinating, but sadly we must move on in the interest of getting you back to your dorms on time! We don’t want any of you falling asleep tomorrow in your morning classes! We do have one more creature left, though: the Enret. These fish are unfortunately monochromatic, but they do change another thing about themselves in accordance with the Moon’s phases. In order to keep their population at an even number of males to females (and therefore to have the best reproduction rates), every single member of each school changes their sex. Previously, marine magizoologists thought they did this randomly, as needed, as it did not seem to match up to any time of year or any particular time of the month (as moon phases do not necessarily happen on the same day of every month). However, the theory was posed a decade or so ago that these changes linked up to the first quarter Moon, and it was quickly proven correct! It is unclear how this is coordinated, but the result is that there is an even number of males and females in the school (or as close as one can get in the case of an odd number of fish) in order to account for new births or the loss of members in between each first quarter Moon. These creatures seem to have a very strong link with the heavens, as they have a number of other quirks related to eclipses as well, but I’m afraid that’s all we have time for today!

Concluding Remarks

If you would like to learn more about magical creatures such as Mooncalves, please consider taking Care of Magical Creatures if you are not doing so already. The professor of that course can answer any questions relating to a host of fascinating magical creatures, not just those discussed here. Similarly, if you are interested in getting your hands dirty and learning about the applications of Mooncalf dung in herbology, feel free to talk to the Herbology professor. In fact, there are many connections between plants and the heavens, particularly regarding harvesting times! You’ll learn heaps about magical plants and their relationships to astronomy in that class.

For this lesson, the only assignment is the usual  ten-question quiz to review the content. This should be a nice break to give you extra time to study for your midterm! If you have any questions prior to the test, please send me an owl.  Class dismissed.

The original lesson was written by Professor Turing.