Okagouti

Some populations of Plentgouti began to leave their rainforest home behind, spreading into the Drake Temperate Rainforest and the Drake Boreal Forest. As these habitats were more open compared to a dense rainforest, they became easier to spot with their bright green coloration and they began to fall prey. To adapt, these populations would evolve to better blend into these kinds of habitats in order to survive and thus gave rise to the Okagouti. Much like their ancestor and cousins, the Okagouti is fully terrestrial with hooves adapted to run on the substrate. Their legs have become longer in proportion to their bodies compared to their close relatives, allowing them to run faster and thus escape predators in the more open woodlands they typically inhabit. Their ears and their smelling eyes help detect threats before it's too late, though their ears have reduced in size since the environments they live in are cooler and a large surface area loses heat more quickly. The light-sensing eyes at the tip of the snout help with looking for food and watching out for predators. It feeds on small flora such as Pioneeroots, Marbleflora and any fallen fruit such as from the Qupe Tree as well as the nuts of small producers such as those of the Forest Quone. Much like its ancestor, the Okagouti only gets a small part of its energy from photosynthesis, primarily getting its energy from the food it consumes. To better blend in with the woodlands and boreal forests, the Okagouti has lost most of its green coloration, the back scales having become purple from anthocyanins being present, the new coloration providing better camouflage while still helping to get sunlight. Much like their ancestors and close relatives, the Okagouti frequently mate and give birth to many offspring to offset their relatively high predation rates. Their adaptations for speed, however, mean that more of these babies survive to adulthood compared to their close kin and those that do typically live longer. There are two distinct subspecies of the Okagouti, with the Rainforest Okagouti(K. okapiimimus silvacursor) being noticeably greener, having larger ears, and living more like their ancestor and as such are more uncommon due to more prevalent competition for its ecological niche in the region. The second subspecies is known as the Common Okagouti(K. okapiimimus borealis), which live in the Temperate Woodlands and the Boreal forests, which has been the subspecies that has been mostly described here and is the more abundant of the two.