Notox

The notox replaced its ancestor the norat in Huggs Taiga and Huggs Rocky. Due to the success of its relatives it had more and more competition over food. All that left was the purpplage. The ones that could survive the poison lived and thus the notox was created. Overtime became dependent on each other and the purpplage evolved into the toxplage. The toxplage fruit are so poisonous that no other species except the notox can eat them. They help spread their seeds and thus create more food for them. Due to the cold climate it has become more stout and fat. It will store up on fruit during the warmer months and then will burrow underground to hibernate in the winter. Their fat stores up some of the toxins from the fruit it eats and thus make them poisonous to predators. Younger notox who have not built up enough poison fat can be eaten thus they have a lot of offspring to ensure some survive to adulthood where they are fat and poisonous. In addition those that are not fat are less poisonous and thus can be eatten as well. Thus the fatter survive. They live much like their ancestors and are very social. They are very healthy and tend to be immune to most diseases. They love to play and tickle each other. Males will have sumo-like wrestling contests where the one who can push the other out of the burrow gets the female. Oddly enough sometimes very fat notox will get stuck in narrow burrows.