Photograph of SCP-8170 taken by Researcher Balotnik. Potentially hazardous elements obfuscated or redacted.
Item #: SCP-8170
Object Class: Euclid
Secure Containment Procedures: Foundation employees found discussing SCP-8170 in a social environment, or found having any conversation relating to SCP-8170 beyond its containment in an official setting, are to be interviewed immediately about the source of their knowledge, and afterward administered Class C amnestics to remove all memory of SCP-8170.
Researcher Balotnik is the only researcher permitted to fully view specimens of SCP-8170. Researcher Balotnik will monitor the academic world for any mention of SCP-8170 and coordinate Foundation operations to eliminate any potential research into the subject.
Any personnel except Researcher Balotnik attempting to edit the “Description” article of this page without prior authorization, regardless of clearance level, are to be immediately questioned by the SCP-8170 containment team. Personnel not on the SCP-8170 containment team that attempt to speak to Researcher Balotnik about SCP-8170 must be incapacitated, using lethal force only if necessary, and immediately amnesticized.
Description:
| Permitted Descriptors of SCP-8170. No more specific description is permitted under any circumstances. |
|---|
| Common Name | East Andes Mammal |
| Scientific Name | None1 |
| Weight | Less than 5kg |
| Number of Limbs | 4 |
| Toes per foot | Between 2 and 6 |
| Coloration | Within natural mammalian range2 |
| Tail Length | Between 5cm and 200cm |
| Distribution | Bolivia and northern Argentina |
SCP-8170 is an anomalous species of small mammal with a cognitohazardous effect on human beings. A single person may safely observe SCP-8170, but when two or more humans are discussing any physical, behavioral, or taxonomic features of SCP-8170 beyond the most general, it will invariably result in an argument. The more specific the feature of SCP-8170 under discussion, the more violent the argument will become.
Discovery and Containment Attempts: SCP-8170 has been known to modern science as a species since 1933, when it was mentioned very briefly in a text on South American mammals by Dr. Werner Lipschultz of Heidelberg University. Lipschultz was the only scholar performing any manner of research on SCP-8170 until his death in 1965.
The anomalous effects of SCP-8170 were not known until the 1998 American Neotropical Mammalogy Society Conference that conferred in Columbus, Ohio, USA, on 03/12/1998. There, a graduate student presented her thesis research on SCP-8170, aiming to be the first to formally describe its anatomy, life history, and behavior. By the time the Columbus Police Force arrived on the scene, four mammal researchers were already deceased and sixteen severely injured in the mob violence. Foundation police monitors immediately noticed the incident’s anomalous nature and deployed a Mobile Task Force to amnesticize all witnesses.
Foundation anthropologists were deployed to Bolivia on 7/7/1999, with the express purpose of describing cultural perceptions of the Aymara people living in SCP-8170's native range. Upon being shown the partially redacted image of SCP-8170 and asked about ‘an animal that causes arguments’, any Aymara person interviewed immediately ceased speaking and would refuse further discussion, except to tell researchers to avoid the topic.
On 8/10/2000, a proposal was officially presented to the Ethics Committee advocating the forced extinction of SCP-8170, due to its potential to incite deadly violence and compromise Foundation secrecy. The proposal passed with a 10-4 vote. Mobile Task Force Delta-18 ('Big Irons'), Subforce 3, was assigned to carry out the operation. A transcript of their initial briefing meeting is provided below.
It is currently believed that SCP-8170 has naturally evolved a defensive cognitohazardous ability to make humans and other social predators, such as canids, violently aggressive towards each other when attempting to coordinate hunts targeting it. It is also possible that parent animals, even species not considered cooperative hunters, that attempt to teach their young to hunt SCP-8170 would fall victim to its effects. There is no doubt that the evolutionary benefits of this would be extremely advantageous.3
Note from Researcher Balotnik
Yesterday I was transcribing some of my old notes about its anatomy, and I found myself getting irrationally angry at the decisions I'd made. More than that, angry at the person I used to be. I muttered some curses at this "me from the past". Then realized this goddamn thing had me fighting with myself. I need to be careful it doesn't progress.
Last year, one of my good friends, Dr. Khan, casually mentioned he heard I was studying some kind of small animal. I had to taze him unconscious right there in the Euclid wing breakroom. Even after the team gave him Class C amnestics, we're not friends anymore. Won't even talk to me. Something about this effect lingers, even if it's no longer dangerous.
Evolution builds on existing traits. In the same way a virus hijacks its host's immune system, I think this hazard activates something already deep within us. It's a clever trick. SCP-8170 knows it's not big enough to defend itself, so it uses the thing that can.
Humanity's greatest trait is our ability to cooperate. Take that away, and we're just weak, naked beasts, clawing at ourselves.
- Anna Balotnik, 5/5/2013