Dungsculptor Janit

The dungsculptor janit, as its name suggests, sculpts dung to form nests. Much of its nest material consists of sealyn dung, as the herbivorous sealyn produces the most dung in its habitat. The sealyn's dung is not as easy to sculpt as snow, so dungsculptor janits have flexible hand-flippers. In addition, dungsculptor janits are, to a degree, selective in which pile of dung they use to construct a nest. They may even make their nests from a composite of dung piles, picking only the most ideal clods from each for their structures. They favor dung from a sealyn that has eaten primarily snotflora, for the slimy residue is better at keeping the dung together.

By using dung, dungsculptor janits face many difficulties. Unlike snow, dung has a patchy and unpredictable distribution, so the competition for the material is intense. (While sealyns live in massive colonies, they do not have a communal latrine. Therefore, the dung distribution is random. The competition is made only more intense by the problem of some piles being low-quality. The competition may even by dangerous: in their mad search to find and retrieve ideal dung, they may be crushed by the comparatively immense sealyn as they roll over in their sleep. All the while, dung-seekers are haunted by another coprophagic species, the hornsniffer.

The hornsniffer, with its keen sense of smell, may claim a dung pile for food before a dungsculptor janit even reaches the pile. There are only two advantages a dungsculptor janit has over a hornsniffer. The first is that they have greater numbers, and thus a greater chance of being at a randomly-distributed dung pile before the hornsniffer detects the pile. The second is their greater speed.

Despite their greater speed, they may still be crushed by an approaching hornsniffer, especially if they are blocked in a dead-end of sleeping Sealyn bodies or if they fall into a hornsniffer's pit-nest in their haste.

Due to all these dangers, not every male even lives long enough to pass on genes. Some males avoid the danger of collection, and instead steal the dung of returning males. They often do this by running up to to the targeted male, smacking his face with a flipper, and then grabbing the dung before the target can fight back.

Even after the assembly of a nest, the male dungsculptor janit must be on alert, for a hornsniffer may devour his dung-nest. If a hornsniffer approaches, the male dungsculptor makes crude snowballs and throws them at the hornsniffer's legs. Due to the Dungsculptor Janit's poor depth perception, the snowballs do not always hit.

Though making nests out of dung has many dangers, it also has advantages. The dung, in addition to performing an insulating function, produces heat as it rots. This keeps the eggs warmer than they would be if laid in snow. Because of the increased temperature, the eggs hatch faster.