Beach Shrotter

Several shrotter families eventually ended up finding the King Beach on the opposite side of the Ichthy Swamp, where they decided to settle down, forming the beach shrotter offshoot species. While they continue to construct burrows, these are now more complex and only open along the land, due to the difficulty of keeping their burrow entrances open in the wet sand on the shoreline. Because of this, they must walk to the water to swim around, but they now will also feed on the beach's sweetbacks and various flora. For this, their back teeth have become blunter for chewing plant material as well as crushing sweetback bodies. They have obtained four sets of small, bulbous barbels along the sides of their snout, which can be used to taste their surroundings, useful for determining if beach flora is too rotten to consume without having to stick it in their mouth to find out. Their tails have also become stronger to better deal with the currents of the ocean, which are more powerful than those found in their original environments. However, their legs have not grown in strength, and the beach shrotters prefer to swim about using their tails, while choosing to use their legs more for steering or when escaping, in order to provide them with a little bit more power. Beach shrotters are a curious lot, and will often watch organisms they are not accustomed to seeing on a regular basis. They are known for sometimes tailing these wayfarers and, if the critter is small enough (ie, significantly smaller than the beach shrotter itself is), they may attempt to eat it, to determine if it's a prey item. Young, and even juveniles on occasion, can be seen playing with their potential terrestrial meals before going for the kill, although adults regularly will just 'go for the throat'; however, adults will also continue playing with their food, but only on the rarest of occasions.