Quillmow

The Quillmow split from its ancestor. Its scales have thinned into many quills upon its back and tail, more like its distant ancestor the Whiskerpick. Unlike its large cousin the Adorned Tamow, which just eats boatloads of grass, the Quillmow seeks out high-quality food such as roots, shrooms, fruit, and berries. It will also consume small ground fauna to supplement this diet. Many tams, including its ancestor, have bulbous noses which rise above their snouts; the Quillmow has modified this into a hog-like nose, which it uses to help it find buried food. Though it no longer has the broad tail of its ancestor, the Quillmow retains webbed feet and it paddles between islands when food becomes scarce. It has taken on a champagne coloration to blend in with dry grass.

The Quillmow sleeps in roughly radial scrapes in the ground. It does not dig very deep, as much of the Driftwood Islands’ “land” is very close to sea level and it would quickly hit mud; if it sleeps in mud, harmful microbes may grow in its fur. These scrapes are generally well-hidden among flora. It will flee into tall grass to hide from predators, its spikes only being able to protect it from a direct, bodily attack.

The Quillmow is no longer strictly monogamous, and though social it will not usually congregate in large groups. Males will swing their heads to fight one another over mates with their long tusks, which are absent in the females. After mating, the male will stick around and guard the female, preventing other males from trying to mate with her, though this is not always successful. The male will leave about a week after the joeys are born. The joeys are born fetal and helpless after just 2 weeks, but take as long as 4 months to develop sufficiently to leave the pouch. Their mother may leave them in a nest scraped in the ground, returning to feed them a few times a day. The juveniles become independent at one year of age and are fully grown at 2.