Glacialshrog

When Drake drifted over the north pole, there was a drop in temperature which in turn caused the northern ice sheet to advance. Wolvershrogs, unable to control where their nests drifted, commonly became stranded on the ice, as did many other oceanic creatures, most of which died. However, the wolvershrogs had some major advantages which allowed them to survive: their food stores provided ample food while they learned to hunt and craft in their new environment, and as they already hunted prey from their floating nests, they had no trouble doing the same from atop the ice as well. As food supplies ran out and they switched entirely to their new hunting and crafting methods, these trapped wolvershrogs eventually diverged into a new species, the glacialshrog, which ultimately replaced its ancestor in the polar coasts surrounding Drake due to hunting from atop ice being far more energy efficient. This has also caused the wolvershrog to vanish from other polar biomes in Drake, including Bumpy Polar Mangal, Drake Frostwood, and Drake Polar Scrub.

Glacialshrogs, like most shrogs, are tool users, but as no trees can grow on ice, they primarily use tools made from the skeletal components of the various fauna they eat. One of the basic glacialshrog tools is one made from the J- or checkmark-shaped wooden “backbone” of the fatruck, which can be gnawed smooth and modified into a hook or something like a small harpoon. Bones harvested from increasingly large fauna allow the construction of larger, sturdier tools. Glacialshrogs have huge teeth that would allow them to kill most of their prey items on their own, but tools create a handle that can be more easily grabbed and is very effective at slowing their prey down. This makes hunting with tools more consistent and sustainable for meeting their energy needs. Instead, the huge teeth are used to hold onto prey when dragging it onto ice or shore to feast.

As glacialshrogs no longer cut down trees, their tails rapidly reverted back to the purpose it had in their marine tamow ancestors: swimming. The saw has been replaced with a fluke. Likewise, their entire body is more streamlined. Only very large marine predators would mess with a glacialshrog, so there was no need to retain large spikes that create drag. The lunate tail allows glacialshrogs to pursue prey over long distances. A larger wounded prey item such as a young lyngbakr attracts other glacialshrogs to aid in the hunt, and they work as a group to drag their catch onto the ice.

Not all things glacialshrogs eat are caught with tools. Most notably, they will break into fatruck burrows from above to kill and eat the pups using only their teeth and claws. There is often an adult present as well, which a glacialshrog can easily overpower and kill. This is the main way a glacialshrog with no tools will get started—by killing an adult parent fatruck and harvesting its bones. They will also harvest bones, as well as vast amounts of meat, from beached megafauna such as lyngbakrs, as well as hunt terrestrial creatures along the beaches either with or without tools.

Glacialshrogs have far less complicated social lives than wolvershrogs. Hardened by the harsh conditions atop the ice, they are generally more solitary and are unlikely to interact amicably outside of breeding or group mob hunting. Likewise, some of the complexity of their ancestral vocalizations is lost. Family names have vanished entirely and name-barking as a whole is inconsistent. Most other vocalizations and body language remain intact, but amicable vocalizations are almost exclusive to family groups. Glacialshrogs are now also capable of bellowing as a threat. The ancestral image of a benevolent “Santa Claus shrog” is gone, as a glacialshrog is more likely to kill and eat other shrog species that drift too far north than to aid them.

Without any readily-available building material but ice, glacialshrog nests are exclusively made from it. In the permanent ice sheets, they make spherical nests that might remind one of an igloo, where they store tools and pack chunks of meat in ice for later consumption, effectively using it as a natural deep freezer. This method of food storage also allows glacialshrog parents to leave their young alone for days or even weeks while they hunt, as the juveniles can dig up and thaw some meat to consume whenever they are hungry. Juveniles will also wander from the nest and stab at gilltails and other small fauna through holes in the ice, should they prefer fresh meat, which gives them valuable practice for hunting larger fauna later.

Glacialshrogs form mated pairs, but only for two years. They mate during the summer and have a gestation period of about 9–10 months, giving birth to 3-5 cubs in the spring. Cubs are blind and helpless, but already have a full coat of fur which insulates them against the harsh polar conditions once they’re licked dry. The pouch is present but usually foregone, as glacialshrogs are more aquatic than their ancestor and can’t risk drowning their cubs. Both parents proceed to raise their cubs for about a year longer, but eventually the father leaves and the mother continues raising them alone. At the age of 3, the cubs are able to start learning how to hunt, and they are theoretically capable of independence at 5 but usually stay with their mother until they are 8 years old. Slow growers due to their large brains, like their ancestor they become fertile before they reach full size, though this is more of a consequence of their bodies preparing for adulthood and they don’t always mate at this point. Generally, when they do mate, fertile adolescents will only mate with others their age. They are fertile at 11 years old and fully grown at 13.