Red Rivershrog

As the course of the Maineiac river changed, it no longer crossed the forests from which Maineiac rivershrogs sourced much of their wood, forcing them to adapt. This produced the red rivershrog, which replaced its ancestor.

The red rivershrog is very similar to its ancestor, at least physically, outside of its shorter, redder fur and longer facial osteoderms. The main difference that sets it apart is in its nests. Without a near-infinite supply of wood, the iconic “villages” of elaborate compound nests that its ancestor built were unsustainable. This is not to say that the red rivershrog no longer makes elaborate nests, but it is far more comfortable in close quarters than its ancestor, so many shrogs will inhabit a single structure. The nests themselves also differ considerably, no longer made only of wood and instead including a significant amount of mud and thatch in their structure. They better resemble elevated beaver lodges than shrog nests, which also helps to make them less conspicuous, especially as flora such as vingrasions—which, coincidentally, help hold them together due to their net-like colony structure—more readily grow on them.

The nests are generally constructed on overlapping clusters of diagonal tetrabrachs that grow along the river and lake, which by their shape naturally hold them up. Though these shrubs don’t support heavy weight further along their length, close to their base they are very strong, which makes them useful for this purpose. This is more efficient and stable, and less labor-intensive, than using stilts and beams made from dead wood which has been artificially introduced by the shrog, though prongs from smaller tetrabrachs and saplings will still often be incorporated into the nest. The prongs themselves eliminate the need to construct bridges and ramps to different nodes of the nest. This makes the red rivershrog semi-arboreal, though it is hard to say when in its evolution this happened, as its ancestor already lived in elevated nests.

The red rivershrog no longer fells huge trees for wood. As such, the osteoderms along its tail have vanished. Its tail saw has taken on an axe-like shape, suited to cutting down young trees and lopping off the flexible prongs of tetrabrach shrubs. Ossified tendons keep it straight, making it more effective and less prone to injury, like the tail of a terran ankylosaur.

Semi-arboreality is somewhat integrated into the red rivershrog’s hunting strategy, though not always. Like its ancestor, it lives mainly along slow-moving ponds and tributaries and uses pieces of meat as bait to attract larger aquatic creatures, which it then ambushes as a mob and kills using simple wooden spears. Some populations along the lakeside and swamp make use of extremely horizontal tetrabrachs to take this to the deeper waters, where their prey will be less wary, and prod the resulting carcass with spears to get it to shore. This does present the potential problem of falling into the water, which could lead to drowning or predation by larger fauna, so only smaller mobs that can stay stable on the bending horizontal prong are likely to do this. Individuals and juveniles may also climb along the prong to hunt smaller fauna, such as gilltails and swarmers, even if the particular population won’t hunt large creatures this way.

In general, the red rivershrog is more socially coordinated than its ancestor, though it rarely lives in groups of more than 15. Groups will often have a leader whose judgment they trust. Cultural “words” for cardinal directions based on the flow of the river still exist mostly unchanged, though they differ somewhat in lakeside populations to instead refer to the direction relative only to the water’s edge, as they never cross the lake. However, as they no longer form “villages”, they no longer have a word that can be used to point out a specific nest, leaving them with only 4 common words. The key word is “common”, however, as occasionally, new local words will pop up to refer to landmarks. Red rivershrogs are instinctively capable of recognizing one another by their horns, but much like a human seeing a face in a random blob, this can lead to them seeing a set of horns in, say, a tree stump, a rock, or a pile of sticks. After hearing too many inquisitive trills from others wondering “who” it is, one rivershrog might finally decide to assign it a name-bark, turning it into a named landmark. Otherwise, the red rivershrog’s vocalizations and body language are the same as its ancestor’s.

Like its ancestor, the red rivershrog has a mating season in the late fall, and multiple neighboring groups will come together in the same place along the river to ensure genetic diversity. It uses its horns as a health indicator when selecting a mate. Males often have larger horns than females, though not as a rule. It settles disputes over mating competition through ritual clashing and raking of horns. The loss of its tail osteoderms means that it no longer has to mate belly-to-belly, as the remaining osteoderms on its back are not very sharp and serve more as armor. This makes mating quicker and easier, reducing the chances that they might be interrupted by a threat such as a predator. Similar to its ancestor, the red rivershrog is polygamous and exhibits bisexual mating behavior, where they will mate with both the same and opposite sex.

The red rivershrog gestates for 3 months and gives birth in early spring. Newborns are naked and helpless, but well-developed, and live in their mother’s pouch. They grow and develop enough to be weaned in a matter of weeks, and they take about 4½ years to reach maturity. Some will stay in their home when they mature, but most will disperse, joining other communities and ensuring genetic diversity. The red rivershrog can live as long as 30 years, should it not die from disease or predation.

The red rivershrog retains all of its ancestor’s relationships with other species. Maineiac shailnitors keep their nests clean by eating feces and rotten meat, and red rivershrogs, despite finding them cute, will still sometimes kill them for bait if there are too many of them. Despite there being fewer nests, the Maineiac shailnitor maintains the same population and reproductive rate as before, as more shrogs in a single nest produce more waste for the shailnitors to eat. The red rivershrog also only exists in the less brackish parts of the marsh close to the river, as the Maineiac shailnitor will die if the water is too salty and the red rivershrog is dependent on it to keep its nests clean. The nests are also populated by cleaner borvermids and false cleaner borvermids.