Muddy Longbeak

The muddy longbeak split from its widespread ancestor, the wingless sprinter, to live solely in Hydro River. Physically it is very similar to its ancestor, only being slightly smaller as well as having a longer beak and a teal coloration. The main difference is in its lifestyle: it now spends all of the day walking in the shallow waters of the river looking for its only prey, the filter uksip. Its neck is always curved so that its hearing hole, which has now moved backwards, is always in the air. They can hold their breath for very long peroids, an average of 15 minutes and a maximum of 30 minutes. It uses it long beak to catch the filter uksips with more ease. It sometimes lurks without moving covering itself with mud and ambushes them as well. They are almost always covered with mud in order to camouflage themselves and cool themselves down when they leave the waters to mate or sleep. They no longer hunt in packs and are quite solitary. In mating season the males will usually fight each other using their beaks, sometimes even critically wounding each other. Their pregnancy is about 5 months long and 6-12 small young are born. These are rather small as their beak from which they give birth is very narrow. The mother takes care of the young for 2 months and then leaves them alone as they get large enough to catch their own prey, young filter uksips. They live for an average of 16 years.