Darth Shroom Herder

The Darth shroom herder split from its ancestor. It primarily consumes farmed shrooms, no longer feeding from its stockpiles at all. With its instinctive habit of farming shrooms using detritus and carcasses came a drive to find bigger, better sources, leading this large beaked nodent to move northward into the woodlands which were full of logs and leaf litter. There it also discovered the Darth Lava Tube Caves, within which conditions were stable year-round and there was lots of dark space unobstructed by competing flora to grow large fields of shrooms. Though not all populations of the species use these caves, the ones that do have become the species’ namesake because their massive harvests resulted in them having an exceptionally high population density. It has taken on a dark coloration using anthocyanins, which do not block light for photosynthesis; however, living in a dark environment, photosynthesis has hardly any use for the species and is ultimately vestigial.

Darth shroom herder shroom farms are more conspicuous than those of its ancestor. To maximize growing space for shrooms, they will instinctively lean tree branches together in a manner resembling the framework of conical tents such as teepees. To encourage more shroom growth, the Darth shroom herder will defecate into the shroom farms, as its dung contains the spores from its last meal. Shroom mycelium will climb the dead branches and produce fruiting bodies all over them, as well as all over whatever else the herders placed in their farm. The Darth shroom herder will then consume the shrooms once their berries are ripe. The shrooms sometimes attract small creatures which eat shrooms, such as gamergate gundis, which the Darth shroom herders will stomp on when they see them to defend their farms. As the shroom farms provide a significant amount of food compared to the amount of effort needed to obtain and eat it, Darth shroom herders have a lot of free time, which is mostly spent on social activity.

Darth shroom herders live in groups, like their ancestor. Their instinctive agriculture and large amount of resources allows them to form very large herds, sometimes surpassing two thousand members. Their territories overlap far more than their ancestor’s, simply due to their sheer numbers and resource availability, and they only particularly defend the farms from outsiders. Indeed, only the farms are actually marked as territory at all, as it would be impossible to maintain scent marks for the entire section of land they inhabit. This has its disadvantages of course; members of other herds can encroach very deep into their territory and steal from their farms without being noticed until the last possible moment. Intraspecific conflict can still be quite deadly, as their vicious defense of their farms still involves a clashing of fangs.

The Darth shroom herder’s spikes are longer and are now present on the tail, and they serve to break up its shape and make it look bigger than it actually is. The spikes don’t actually have much direct defensive use and break easily. The species is also sexually dimorphic, as the males are slightly larger and have green striping on their throats and the females are slightly smaller and lack the green markings. Males may fight over mates, though this is far less violent and more ritual as to not tear apart the herd. They breed in the winter and give birth to one offspring at a time in the spring. Like most plents, they mate and give birth through their mouths, which they can open unexpectedly wide for this purpose.