Sparkleshrog

The Sparkleshrog split from its ancestor and became the first major predator on the Driftwood Islands. It is just as smart as its ancestor, but it has switched its hunting method to be based more on rushing towards its prey from cover. Its face is longer and dog-like, which helps it to bite and tear its prey apart. It retains tool use, but it focuses this ability largely on manipulating its environment. It contributes greatly to the integrity of the Driftwood Islands, as it will lay logs between floating islands to make bridges for easier travel between them. The Raft-Building Cone Puffgrass grows into the bridges and causes the colonies to merge into an even larger island. Doing this grants the Sparkleshrog easier access to prey and mates without having to swim between islands, though it will still do that as well. It still utilizes spears, though mainly as a means of controlling its armored prey without getting a torso full of spikes, as it mostly uses its jaws and occasionally tail to do the actual killing. It may go for the throat to cause its prey to bleed out, or for the belly to disembowel. It will sometimes hunt Stegomizers by flipping them over from a distance with a stick and lunging for the throat before they can recover, but they are not its preferred prey.

Normally, a large predator would have drab countershaded coloration in order to be better hidden from its prey. However, the Sparkleshrog visibly contradicts this tendency; its coat is shiny and reddish-black with white speckles all over, its nose and paw pads are blood-red, and its claws and osteoderms are iridescent blue. This is because it has found a way to camouflage itself far more effectively than what natural coloration could ever accomplish, and therefore has no need to look cryptic at all, instead opting for “beautiful” coloration that showcases its health to potential mates. The Sparkleshrog has has learned to use Mainland Fuzzpalm and Fuzzpile berries to glue clumps of flora, bark, and driftwood together to form artificial camouflage to use while hunting. This comes in the form of smaller mats draped over its back and larger “tents” which it waits under. It hides under the artificial camouflage it has created, either lying in wait or slowly sneaking up on a potential target, until it is close enough to burst out from under it and strike before its prey has a chance to react. This camouflage is so effective that occasionally, an herbivore will graze the flora used to construct it without even noticing the colorful Sparkleshrog underneath. Though it does not eat the berries at all, using them for these camouflaging covers has nonetheless made it one of the primary species distributing these flora throughout the Driftwood Islands.

The Sparkleshrog is mostly solitary in terms of living and hunting, though eating is somewhat of a social event when it takes down large prey. An individual’s hunting grounds is centered around a central dome-shaped den which is usually overgrown with grass. The den often contains extra spears, camouflaging materials, salt, and leftover food. The Sparkleshrog is able to preserve meat as jerky to feed on when food is scarce or when its island drifts into the temperate woodland region with harsher winters, using mineral sea salt which is readily available on the surface of the driftwood islands. This jerky-making behavior originated with the shrogs applying salt to meat for better taste. It prefers to stay on one island and expand it as it collides with others, but it can relocate and swim across stretches of water to reach new islands when necessary.

The Sparkleshrog is no longer monogamous, though it still lacks a breeding season and mates often. Females are almost always pregnant or nursing. A high birth rate is still required due to the frequency of islands breaking up and the inherent danger that comes from hunting. Males may still compete for mating rights by wrestling, but bright healthy colors are the main attraction, so to speak, for both sexes. Gestation lasts about four months, juveniles are independent at 3 years, and they’re fully grown at 6. Although solitary as mentioned before, Sparkleshrogs will watch out for and protect the juvenile offspring of their neighbors.

The Sparkleshrog has spread the Cleaner Borvermid and False Cleaner Borvermid “inland” by providing a nest microclimate for them.