A collection of small articles on various animals in Adylheim.
Description: Baanz are one of Adylheim's oddest looking creatures. Its neck is usually the length of its body or longer, and has no definite head-end. It does, however, have a mouth-end, with its neck ending in a single mouth ringed with several rows of blunt teeth and leathery, bluish lips (the baanz is Adylheim's, perhaps the world's only jawless land mammal. Jawless fish such as hagfish and lampreys exist in the deep ocean, but the baanz is the only land-roaming mammal with no jaws to speak of, though its mouth is very strong, and large enough to encompass a human head). It has, far inside its mouth, a small protrusion that acts as a tongue to push food into the esophagus. Its brain is almost directly above this mouth, and is very small. The baanz's back comes to a camel-like hump between the shoulders, and slopes steadily downward into a foot-long tail at its hindquarters. Its legs taper from thick at the top to skinny at the foreleg, and end altogether in cloven hooves. Its fur is typically very thick, wiry, and brown, much like a bear's. Baanz have no eyes, relying entirely on scent-glands below their mouths to get where they're going, and feeling their way around with their necks. As such, they are obviously very slow-moving.
Habitat/Distribution: Chiefly the seasonal forests of Starkwater and the two southern fiefdoms. They are often bunched up together, as there is no territorial issue, and though they often graze together as a social means, they otherwise only come together to mate and migrate.
Food: Herbivores. Normally eat leaves and grass, and though they can subsist on bark when things get desperate in the winter, it wreaks havoc on their digestive systems. Unless bark is eaten in small frequent amounts, a large amount consumed by a baanz at once often causes intestinal blockage and can harm its inner tissues, sometimes resulting in death. Lucky enough, while a baanz's brain is relatively small, they know better than to eat too much at once-- unless they are absolutely starving.
Size: A typical male baanz can grow to four feet tall and five feet long. Females are normally the same size, though they may sometimes be smaller. It should be noted that southern baanz are smaller by up to two feet either way, as leafy vegetation is easier to access by shorter animals.
Reproduction: Mating occurs in the late fall, birthing in spring. Females give birth to live young, usuallyonly one at a time, though sometimes up to three at once. Young baanz are referred to as "pups".
Temperament: Baanz are normally very shy and very harmless. However, cases often arise when a baanz is infected with "Baanz rabies", a type of parasitic fungus that infiltrates their brains (also see the Cordyceps fungus in tropical rainforests) and causes them to go mad and become violent. It should be noted that baanz are extremely dangerous when enraged as such, and that their mouth is strong enough to crush a human skull. Don't let an angry baanz near your head.
Predators: Baanz are very rarely targeted by any animal other than bipedal ones, because they have good defense with their strong mouths.
Mutations: General mutations (albinism and the like). Baanz are also subject to size mutations, and while these are normally a simple matter of one or two feet lengthwise or heightwise, there have been [uncomfirmed] reports of baanz growing up to a massive twelve feet tall and twelve feet long. What's more, these gargantuan baanz can apparently speak.
Relatives: The baanz is a very singular animal, and as such, has no known relatives.
Habits: The baanz only migrates a little further south into Arameian woodlands during the winter, and it goes in search of good sheltering places upon arrival. This is often the only time baanz closely mingle on a regular basis.
Description: Is it a plant...? Nope, it's actually an animal. Brushkats look exactly like little bundles of plant, little brushes, or bunches of flowers, but when they begin to move, its obvious that they're animals. Their eyes and ears are disguised as plant parts, as with their legs and feet and tails. Brushkats can vary in size and shape, and some species even specialize in looking like certain types of plants or flowers. They can change their appearances to coincide with the seasons, including being able to "shed" their "leaves". In case of being eaten, they have a nifty defense mechanism much alike to that of lizards: being able to detach their limbs and grow them back. Some brushkats can grow real fungi, which act more as an irritance to them, as acne is to humans. Some brushkats are also highly poisonous.
Habitat/Distribution: Seasonal forests.
Food: Carnivores. Are only capable of eating prey smaller than themselves.
Size: Varies. Can be large as a large bush or tiny as a bouqet of flowers.
Reproduction: Brushkats are solitary creatures, and only come together to mate. Some will mate in the traditional animal-style, while others-- Flowering Brushkats-- possess stigma and pistils, which house pollen grains and ovules, respectively. After the pollinating process is done, the seeds can be deposited safely near the mother, and grow into eggs. In the case of traditional sexual reproduction, however, mating can occur more or less anytime, and is often violent, with the male and female scrapping for position. Females have a monthly cycle wherein they give off chemicals that tell any nearby males that they are ready to mate. Pregnancy can last up to six weeks. In both cases, litters can be had of around five or six "kittens".
Temperament: Generally antisocial, and will attack anything that is too big to catch and eat, but will remain disguised and stay more or less completely still for anything that is likewise too dangerous. If the danger of being eaten is evident, they will scurry off after detaching the threatened limb(s).
Predators: They may be predators themselves, but that does not except them from the rules of nature. Small brushkats may be threatened by plant/berry eating animals like deer, baanz, or bears. Large ones by even bigger baanz or bears. However, their defence mechanisms are efficient enough that these threats do not endanger the species, but that the threats also manage to keep the species under control.
Mutations: None marked as of yet. It is difficult to ascertain any mutations because brushkats are already difficult to visually analyze.
Relatives: The feline or canine family, as well as the mongoose family.
Habits: None of notability. Brushkat kittens are playful and curious and sometimes refuse to stay still. Mothers are affectionate. Some people have made pets of brushkats, but it takes a good deal of skill with animals to pull this off-- not to mention those with a garden should take care not to let them outside.
Description: Field Skitters are classified as bugs, although they are much more dangerous. They are thin beings composed of a hard shell and fleshy soft underside. Their shell is circular and comes to a ribbed sharp edge. They have four pars of limbs, all legs that retract into their underside. Their shell and lags are generally the same length. Therefore a Skitter with a shell diameter of one foot would have foot long legs. Their legs are thing structures with joints in three to four locations, depending on age. The ends of their legs come to a sharp point.
Habitat/Distribution: They hide in wheat fields and other places that are not heavily trafficked. They prefer flat lands and travel in groups. Young Skitters can be found in shallow water bodies. They generally prefer a warm climate. This being said, Skitters have been seen all around Aram, and as far as the base of the Ribs.
Food: Skitters are the Sharks of the land. They will eat any number of things, from plants to humans. They have a renowned stomach that can filter even poison. This makes them incredibly hard to kill.
Size: When born they are merely centimeters long, and have a soft body. They spend a month in water, and in this time grow to be about fifteen centimeters in diameter. They also grow out a shell in this month. Over the next eight or so months they can grow to be thirty to even sixty centimeters in diameter.
Reproduction: Their reproduction methods are some of the most dangerous observed in the wild, due to their many sharp claws. During reproduction the male falls on it;s shelly back, and the female climbs on. The danger for the male comes during this part, if a female slips or falters in any way, the male will probably be pierced and die. Half of all mating pairs experience this difficulty. It is not uncommon for a male to attempt to push the female off after being pierced, hence killing both parties. Of the successful mating rituals, they produce about fifteen eggs in the next month. The eggs are instinctively laid in a body of water. They stay with their "pack" all of their lives until mating. After reproduction, Skitters burrow about a foot underground and wait to die alone.
Temperament: Skitters are fairly dull creatures. Study has shown that they live to eat and mate. Very few variations happen. It is also believed that one "pack" somehow shares a collective conscious. This belief is based upon their incredibly skilled and unified hunting methods.
Predators: As predators they do not search for food, but wait for it to come to them. Anything from a stray child to a wolf separated from it's pack will do as food. They often hide in crop fields and eat the stray vegetation as well. When a living creature enters their territory, they will freeze and wait for it to walk into the center of their "pack." Afterwords, as if they share one mind, they will all propel their bodies toward the target with immense speed. Their sharp shell will easily break skin. A single Skitter would not be entirely threatening, as it may graze the chest badly, but a pack can take down even large threats. They then enjoy their recently mutilated meals.
Mutations: It isn't uncommon for skitters to be incredibly huge, or small. Some Skitters do not develop shells, in this case they are usually left to die. Skitter shells will have color and pattern variations based on location.
Relatives: Skitters are believed to have developed from the same ancestry as most bugs.
Description: Pillar ibex look much like traditional ibex, albeit with dramatic variations in the appearance of their horns, and much, much taller. The reason for this incredible size is unknown. It is believed that pillar ibex can only be found in the Ribs of Adylheim. Their horns are long, and extremely jagged, almost like they are covered in backwards-sweeping spikes.
Habitat/Distribution: The Ribs; chiefly on the dangerous, rocky slopes where only the smallest bit of vegetation grows.
Food: Herbivores. Usually nibbles at the permanent greens that grow on the mountainside all year round.
Size: A full-grown male pillar ibex can grow up to an astounding seven feet tall-- and this does not include their horns. Females are similar in size, but their horns are not nearly so prominent as on their male counterparts. This enormity in height is the foundation for the name "Pillar" ibex. Most of the height is in the legs.
Reproduction: Mating occurs twice a year: once in the spring, and once in the fall. Pregnant females usually give birth after five months. Roughly forty per cent of all fawns will die in their first year due to the treacherous slopes and the threat of snow leopards. Males compete for the right to breed, but a winner in a duel is no guarantee of the ability to breed. Likewise, a loser is not necessarily doomed to never be allowed to breed.
Temperament: Wary but gentle females provide contrast to the more agressive males, who will attack an intruder on their territory.
Predators: Snow leopards, hunters (are most often hunted for trophy).
Mutations: General mutations.
Relatives: The ibex; the deer; other hoofed mammals.
Habits: Pillar ibex do not migrate.