Vibrant Manestrider

Within the rainforests of both javen and dixon, the high abundance of flora tempted populations of brighteyes to become terrestrial, resulting in them becoming unable to glide. But as the obsidiforests rose to prominence and their patterns started to stick out like a sore thumb, these populations of brighteyes would evolve several distinct adaptations to avoid becoming prey. This led to the evolution of the vibrant manestriders, which would replace the populations of brighteyes within the javen forests.

While the vibrant manestriders do supplement their diet with tiny fauna and carrion from time to time, the bulk of their diet consists of local flora species such as clusterblades and carnossamers. Much like their ancestor, the short and powerful mandibles of the vibrant manestrider makes short work of its food.

Much like its ancestor and cousins, the vibrant manestrider retains the extremely derived “eyestrils”, where the back of each eyestril is reflective and directs light towards the light-sensitive patch at the front of the structure. By squashing and stretching this eyestril, the sauceback can focus light similarly to a lens, allowing the eyes to see in high definition and color. This useful adaptation allowed them to easily find food and spot potential predators.

When the vibrant manestrider spots a predator, such as a terrorbeak, the sauceback will quickly sprint away using their large legs, which have become longer than their ancestor for a larger stride. To avoid tripping on themselves while running, the complex feathers on its legs have reduced in size to not get in the way as much. The tail has also elongated to act as a better counterbalance while the vibrant manestrider is walking or running.

While echolocation does not play a prominent role in their senses, vibrant manestriders will still use it on occasion since the obsidiforests can have very little light at times. Sound, however, plays a much larger role in their lives than that of the brighteyes or their relatives. This is due to the vibrant manestrider being much more social, living in small groups that keep in touch by sound. Both sight and hearing, however, play major roles when it comes to mating.

Vibrant manestriders have a specific mating season, which occurs in spring. During this period of time, males are bombarded by powerful hormones such as testosterone and go into a state not too different from elk or deer going into rut. At the same time, the males grow in a large poofy mane with vibrant colors, both in the visible spectrum and in the ultraviolet spectrum. These manes are used entirely for display, with males performing elaborate dances where they shake their manes and step back and forth while making a wide variety of sounds, not unlike that of a bird singing to a potential mate.

While males will seek out mature female vibrant manestriders, their drive to mate means they will try to mate with almost anything if deprived of mature females. This ranges from other male vibrant manestriders, other kinds of fauna, and even random objects. This can sometimes end badly for the males, since the urge to mate may overrun the instinct to flee from predators, resulting in the death rates of male vibrant manestriders to skyrocket during the mating season. Once spring ends and the mating season draws to a close, the male vibrant manestriders will begin to calm down as their hormone levels diminish. No longer serving a purpose, the vibrant feathers making up their mane will begin to be shed off as they now only make them stick out to predators. Any females who successfully mate will nest with other vibrant manestriders to increase the chances of their eggs hatching. In a similar fashion to most other saucebacks, the vibrant manestrider’s larvae are blind and featherless, entirely relying on their single parent for warmth and food(which has to be regurgitated early on in their lives).