Rapidsnatch

The rapidsnatches split from their ancestors, the frigidsnatches, when a group moved into warmer waters in a desperate search of food, as their main food sources in their home lands had disappeared. Once there, they prospered.

Here, they evolved to feed on the diamiboard beakworms, walking uktanks, and island skysnappers that they found, and they have shrunk slightly in order to better thrive on these three organisms. While they are often found feeding on clusters of beakworms, their most reliant meal is the uktanks, who return to the water on a regular schedule. Skysnappers are almost as abundant, but not quite so as they can take to the skies above and reside on the nearby Ovi Island. They are surprisingly quick swimmers, and utilize this to their advantage by swimming only at a moderate speed until giving pursuit, to startle their prey for an easier catch. Like their ancestors, they are still well known for plucking the skysnappers out of the air. To protect their neck from injury at faster speeds, it has gotten thicker, but is still almost equally as flexible.

A powerful tactic comes into play when a hungry rapidsnatch spots an island skysnapper floating along the surface of the water. At this point, it will position itself to be behind its intended victim, and will then swim rapidly towards the surface from below, to catch it off-guard. By the time the skysnapper might notice its pursuer, it is often too late, and the rapidsnatch grasps it in its mouth as it breaks the surface and curls back under the waves to feast.

Their mermaid's purses are lain in clusters, attached to the substrate by several thin strands. Oddly enough, if small creatures happen to break these strands for any reason, the purse will become almost neutrally buoyant; despite their roundish shapes, they still displace almost enough water to equal their mass. At best they could be described as belonging to the bottom rung of neutral buoyancy, and can much more easily be pushed downwards than pushed upwards. Newborn and young rapidsnatches feed on krillpedes, foi and rusty-red foi, spiral urchips, and urstars.