Treeneer

Physically speaking, treeneers are much like their ancestors. However, they do have a few visible differences. A treeneer's single eye protrudes less, with a less bulging lower eyelid. The leg proportions are slightly different, and more visibly, the rumps are smaller and flatter, meaning the spikes are approximately on the same elevation as each other. Its smaller size and less bulging proportions are an adaptation to temperate life, in accordance with Bergmann's rule. Fat that was previously distributed in the rump area are now distributed primarily to the belly and secondarily to the thighs. On the belly, the fat layer is clearly demarcated by a light blue color.

Another difference between the treener and its ancestor is the treeneer's posture. When not climbing vertically the treeneer has a horizontal posture. This less upright posture is similar to that of the Earth cassowary, though the articulation of the leg differs.

Life Cycle

The adults have few predators. Fortunately for population control, treeneers have fairly short lifespans and high juvenile mortality.

Treeneers are most active at dusk, night, and cloudy days, especially in autumn. They spawn in early autumn, which times their eggs' hatching to the major blooms of redmosses. After spawning, the adult treeneers, like salmon, usually die. A few survive to the next spring, but none live long enough to spawn twice.

When the adult treeneers die, their bodies float out to sea, and several scavengers feast upon them. The tastiest ones are those that float on the surface due to the buoyancy of their fat reserves, but such bodies are rare, for adults normally deplete nearly all their fat reserves during spawning. Predators that wish to take advantage of the resource of adult treeneers should eat the adults before they spawn. The thighs are especially flavorful and delicious, tasting much like the dark meat of chicken thighs.

The juvenile treeneers assume adult form by the middle of the springtime, but spend the remaining months of spring and summer building up stores of energy for a massive spawning in autumn. During these months, the adult treeneers are elusive, and are active mostly at night. An uniformed individual would even assume treeneer adults only exist during autumn, for that is when they are most visible.

Since sum-humgroves only produce nectar during the colder months, during the summer treeneers must eat other foods. At night, treeneers leave their typical posts of sum-humgrove roots for the beach, where they eat fuzzweed berries and qupe tree fruit. This only occurs in Darkov Temperate Beach populations, and as a consequence, the Darkov Temperate Beach population is larger than the Darkov Temperate Coast population. Adults in the Darkov Temperate Coast population have to eat redmosses during this time.