Chopsticks Fatcoat

The chopsticks fatcoat split from its ancestor. It is named for its long narrow fangs, which resemble, are used similarly to, and are referred to as chopsticks. It probes for food buried under sand or hidden in flora, and when it finds something it grips it between its chopsticks and pulls it out. It then uses its prehensile tongue to stun or kill the prey item and pull it into its mouth. It has an unusually short tongue for a gulper, not even reaching the end of its chopsticks when fully extended, as it is not used as much for prey capture.

A social creature, the chopsticks fatcoat basks in large groups on the beach, out of reach of aquatic predators and more easily able to defend themselves against terrestrial ones. However, it breaks up into smaller groups to search for food, maintaining some safety in numbers without scaring away all of their potential prey. The chopsticks fatcoat is more aquatic-adapted than its ancestor and no longer capable of standing upright as an adult, instead crawling like a worm or bouncing along on its belly. Juveniles can still stand up, allowing them to look around for predators. It and other fatcoats hold their breath by closing the tail nostril on the inside close to the hip, ensuring that they won't drown from having a tail injury, and will blow water from the nostril when they surface.

The chopsticks fatcoat usually mates on land. Males will compete over receptive females, nipping and tugging at each other's tails, flippers, ears, and eyes with their chopsticks and attempting to body-slam one another. The biggest and toughest males get the most mating opportunities. Gestation lasts about a month and females will give birth to 3-6 small fluffy babies. Newborns lack chopsticks and will hide in flora on or close to the shore until they are big enough to paddle against waves, at which point they will begin following their mother out to sea. Hiding at an early age also serves another purpose: aggressive males will sometimes kill newborns unrelated to them to eliminate competition and to make the females receptive to mating again, so staying hidden helps protect them from this behavior.

When the adults go out hunting, the juveniles will float on the water above them waiting for adults to pass them small morsels, staying afloat as effortlessly as a duck thanks to their thick baby fat and the air trapped in their cotton. This might seem to make them vulnerable to predators, but the adults keep an eye out--if they see something swoop or lunge for the babies, they will swim up and grab them with their chopsticks to pull them under. The babies reflexively hold their breath when grabbed, preventing them from inhaling sea water. When the threat has passed, or when the babies start to run out of oxygen, the adults let go of them and they float back to the surface, sometimes a distance away from where they were before. Despite this method of defense, many babies are still lost to predators.