Driftwood Dasher

When Shorelances arrived on the Driftwood Islands, they came across a wide variety of small prey while competition was relatively small beyond the banks. The only prominent carnivore further inland is the Sparkleshrog, which specializes in hunting big game. This led to certain populations of Shorelances to abandon plant matter and focus entirely on the abundant small game, culminating to the point where they evolved into a distinct species.

The Driftwood Dasher has lost most of its ancestral coloration, as they now only make it stick out like a sore thumb in inland habitats. As such they have become primarily pink, which lets them blend in amongst the abundant purple flora while hunting. Males retain their ancestral coloration on their heads, however, which are used as a mating display to females. They hunt their prey at dawn and dusk in several distinct ways, like searching for Bovermids among the leaf litter before snatching them up with their long bill to be swallowed whole. For creatures like Kakonats, Hockels, and even Shorelances, however, the Driftwood Dasher uses their long legs to chase them down. Once they catch up to prey, they will knock them over by either using their head or feet and then pin the victim to the ground. Once it is subdued, the Driftwood Dasher will grab their prey, pick it up, and proceed to bash it violently into the dirt until it stops struggling. Once the animal ceases any sort of struggle, the Driftwood Dasher will swallow the meal whole. Their large size means they can eat creatures that are fairly large, but they are unable to tear off chunks of flesh efficiently and so can’t hunt big game. This allows them to avoid competition with the Sparkleshrogs, which only hunt the large species of fauna in the region.

Trying to devour Hockels with their two spines adapted to prevent them from getting swallowed does present some dangers for the Driftwood Dasher. When dealing with this specific species of prey, Driftwood Dashers will pin them down with their feet before gripping the spines with their bill and attempting to snap them off. Because they're not very precise, the spines snap off crudely into a size that may be small enough for them to safely swallow the Hockel. There are occasions where they do, however, end up getting the Hockel stuck in their throat and thus choke to death.

Due to living on a bunch of islands, the Driftwood Dasher has lost most of their migratory behaviors (although it is partially retained in their habits of island hopping) and are nowhere near as social as their ancestor. Driftwood Dashers are primarily solitary and pair up only when they rear offspring. Young Driftwood Dashers are born in the summer in pairs or trios, all of which usually reach adulthood due to their parents being the second largest carnivores in their home by the time they evolve. The biggest threat to juveniles are Sparkleshrogs, who will happily make a meal out of them and so mated pairs of Driftwood Dashers become extremely aggressive to anything that looks like a Sparkleshrog, including Seashrogs who do not pose a direct threat to the young. The parents will rear the babies until the winter months, by which point they are old enough to fend for themselves. Once the young leave, the two Driftwood Dasher parents will go their separate ways.

Driftwood Dashers are very poor swimmers, and so have to rely upon other methods of travel to get from one island to another. One main method of transport is the bridges Sparkleshrogs create to also get from one island to another, though this sometimes leads to the two species getting into confrontations. Another method of transport, however, is the various rafts made by either Seashrogs or Marine Tamows. On these rafts, Driftwood Dashers will prey upon the many small critters that live among the decaying foliage such as Stowaway Harmbless or Kakonats which have nowhere to run. Due to the fact the Seashrogs and Marine Tamows are too big for the Driftwood Dashers to eat, they primarily ignore their presence while on these rafts.