Shockscooter

The Coolsteph Temperate Beach biome, at the time the shockscooter evolved, did not have much food. A tide-pool species of the scuttlers genus, Scuttleresta coolstephi, presented severe competition to their ancestors. S. coolstephi, unlike the drakescooters, bred several times a year, and competed with its ancestor for pioneeroots and marbleflora.

A population of drakescooters adapted by eating something S. coolstephi would not eat: magnificent slaesosaurus dung. The descendants of that population became shockscooters, and many of their adaptations arose out of pressures in their diet.

Dung is not rare, but its distribution is patchy and difficult to predict. It also dries out and becomes unsuitable for eating fairly quickly. Thus, competition for this precious resource is severe. Shockscooters' behavior is like that of the magnificent slaesosaurus on a miniature scale, but with dung piles and not nests as a resource.

Being deaf, shockscooters cannot warn off competitors with sounds. Displays of electricity from between modified back-spikes fulfill the same function. (They no longer need predators to touch two of the spikes on their back to produce electricity.) Timing and amplitude of the electric pulses communicates different levels of irritation/territoriality. They do not use electricity to produce any messages other than those related to claiming a dung spot. The use may be limited, but it is very important: shockscooters must calculate rivals' irritation with context to determine if the pile is worth intruding upon. It is disadvantageous for either one to fight, so a would-be intruder must calculate the odds of inciting the dung-holder's wrath, along with a host of other factors, such as whether the host is presently busy fighting off something else, how hungry the intruder is, and whether there will be more dung coming soon.

The severe competition for the resource has given shockscooters "incentive" to find dung as fast as they can. It helps if they can predict where and when the dung is likely to be. Shockscooters may trail particular magnificent slaesosaurus individuals until they excrete. This is apparently because the shockscooter can anticipate that the magnificent slaesosaurus will eventually produce magnificent dung. Shockscooters can even learn the habits of particular individuals that herald dung excretion. For example, a particular individual may wriggle its barbels slightly, roar, or crawl off with atypical speed before excretion. If sufficiently accustomed to their host's habits, a shockscooter will hop over to the rear after the signal and wait for its food to arrive.

Magnificent slaesosauruses only stay on Coolsteph Temperate Beach for the summer. Thus, the resource is limited by time. At the end of summer, shockscooters lay their eggs in tide pools and die, often in those same tide pools. The rotting bodies of the parents keep the eggs warm through the winter and spring of the following year. At the beginning of summer, the shockscooters hatch, looking like miniature editions of their parents.

Occasionally shockscooter spawn is stuck in a gel of dead shelpads. When this happens, it looks like dessert gelatin with a bunch of tiny blueberries suspended in it.

Trivia: Shockscooters are easy to raise in captivity. They will eat anything moist, warm, and mushy, as long as it can be eaten without chewing and is made to smell like magnificent slaesosaurus waste. (Shockscooters do not chew.) Items include dumplings, ice cream, and canned corn.