The Bears And The Bees

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SCP-4611: The Bears And The Bees

Author: Mortos

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An instance of SCP-4611-1 in the Site-72 external habitat.

Item #: SCP-4611

Anomaly Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-4611 colonies sufficient to maintain a healthy population are to be kept in the External Wildlife Habitat of Site-72.

Due to the inefficacy of tranquillisers, wild instances of SCP-4611-1 are to be captured using humane trapping methods and transported to Site-72.

Following Incident 4611-02, aerial defence emplacements are to be established surrounding the perimeter of the External Wildlife Habitat.

Description: SCP-4611 is a species of insect superficially similar to Apis mellifera (western honey bee) in appearance and behaviour. SCP-4611 colonies construct animated hives, designated SCP-4611-1, that possess the appearance and behaviours of Ursus arctos (brown bears). The skin, musculature, skeleton and internal organs of SCP-4611-1 are made entirely of beeswax, and structured internally as a non-anomalous beehive. The fur, claws, eyes and other externally visible features are consistent with their non-anomalous counterparts.

SCP-4611 behaves almost identically to other species' of honey bee, with the exception that the swarm will typically remain idle within SCP-4611-1 as it moves to a suitable location before emerging from beneath the fur to forage for nectar.

The "skin" layer of SCP-4611-1 is anomalously strong for beeswax, allowing it to maintain structural integrity while moving, in addition to providing a defensive layer for the colony; SCP-4611-1 has been to observed to actively fight non-anomalous bears and other predators that attempt to retrieve the honey contained within it. When combined with the natural defences of SCP-4611 itself1, the colony is typically successful in such defences.

The queen of an SCP-4611 colony resembles the instance of SCP-4611-1 in which it resides. Once fully developed, the queen stops feeding on royal jelly and instead consumes the honey produced by the colony. Due to the fact that the SCP-4611-1 instance becomes inanimate upon the death of the queen, it is assumed that the queen is responsible for the animation of the hive. This cannot be confirmed as no way of removing the queen without first destroying SCP-4611-1 has been found.

Incident 4611-01: Following the retrieval of a wild instance of SCP-4611-1 and its introduction into the Site-72 habitat, the new instance immediately became hostile to one of the existing instances. This ultimately resulted in a violent confrontation in which the existing instance was destroyed and the queen devoured by the newly introduced instance.

The instance then consumed the wax and honey of the neutralised hive, resulting in a rapid increase in mass. The surviving members of the destroyed hive were absorbed into the new colony, which at the time of writing measures 4.2m long and 2.5m tall. No further aggressive behaviour between instances has been observed.

Incident 4611-02: On 11/04/2019 an entity resembling a western honey bee measuring approximately 2m long, designated SCP-4611-2, entered the Site-72 External Wildlife Habitat and attacked the SCP-4611-1 instance involved in Incident 4611-01. SCP-4611-2 caused a large puncture using its stinger, then landed on the back of SCP-4611-1. Numerous small entities resembling brown bears measuring approximately 5cm long (designated SCP-4611-3) then emerged from its abdomen.

The SCP-4611-3 instances swarmed into the wound caused by the stinger and then exited approximately 30 seconds later, dragging the queen of the colony with them and neutralising the SCP-4611-1 hive. The SCP-4611-3 instances pulled the queen into the abdomen of SCP-4611-2, which then took off and fled the area. A surveillance drone followed for approximately 1km before being destroyed by SCP-4611-2.

The origin, nature, and current location of SCP-4611-2 is under investigation.

Footnotes

1. Members of SCP-4611 possess stingers analogous to non-anomalous bee species.