Baṛādohve

After thousands of generations living without competition in the Fly Tropical Shallows, the hemodohve carved out a realm for themselves to rule over, gradually gaining the spot of apex predator. Now their descendants have succeeded them as the unparalleled masters of their domain. They are much larger than their ancestor, taking advantage of the open niche, and now the average female baṛādohve can reach sizes up to 5.6 meters in length and 4000 kilograms. Like their ancestors, males are smaller, only reaching about 5 meters and 3500 kilos, though outliers for both sexes do exist.

Baṛādohve live in pods of a few dozen individuals, thought they are naturally transient and individuals will regularly drift in and out of pods. Like their ancestors they mainly hunt the various gilltail species localized in the shallows, but they have expanded to the other inhabitants of the area. They are able to use their collectives to hunt, and will use their groups to corral schools of gilltails into tight, ball formations and will one by one swim directly into them, grabbing mouthfuls of prey. They will occasionally hunt other, larger prey when the opportunity presents itself. such as related Royal Scylarians, the native tamshrews, and even various related members of the Vomex genus. While hunting the tamshrews, their main method is to ram under their floating nests until they splinter, though success is limited and risk of injury from their natural defenses and spears make these more attacks of opportunity.

During mating seasons, females will establish "breeding territories", where they will carve out sections of ocean which can be miles wide and which they raise their young alongside those of their fellow group-mates. Regions with more plentiful food and fewer predators are prime candidates, and non-related females will aggressively defend their territories from other competing females, though blood relatives will be tolerated somewhat. They generally will have 1-2 young at a time, expending their resources into protecting fewer young. They have a naturally small population due to resource availability and habitat size, with the largest global population record reaching ~345,000. This low breeding size and limited populations keep them from overhunting in their habitats, but it leaves them vulnerable to external pressures and disease.

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Original concept by Nergali