Shrogger

As sparkleshrogs thrived in the Driftwood Islands, interspecific competition began to become a problem as their populations grew. This led to some populations traveling to the banks of their drifting islands to pursue prey in the water. To successfully make a living with such a lifestyle, however, they would have to make several different changes in their body plan which eventually lead to them diverging into a distinct species.

The shrogger is a very interesting species of shrew, as they spend a lot of their time in the water rather than on land. Because the mainland fuzzpalm and fuzzpile berries don’t work well as glue underwater like they could on land, artificial camouflage is not an option. As a direct result, the shroggers have lost the majority of their flashy colors, though they partially retain it through their bluish grey facial spines and their red nose. Their dog-like snout is still used to help with biting and killing prey, but they no longer use the tail for killing prey at all and only use it on land for making nests.

As they adapted for swimming underwater, the shrogger had to make several changes to their anatomy, especially in the hindquarters region. Firstly, the spines on their heads have become wider and compressed at an angle, making them more hydrodynamic and thus not cause drag while swimming. The hindlimbs have become elongated, with the back feet being larger and developing extensive webbing between the digits. These limbs are what the shrogger primarily uses for swimming, beating them up and down for a relatively decent cruising speed while the forelimbs are tucked up against the chest. The tail of the shrogger underwent the most dramatic changes, with the tail saw being significantly smaller in size than that of other shrogs. The vertebrae at the base of the tail remain unfused, much like that of other shrogs but the last couple before the tail saw have increased in length. Meanwhile, the tail saw itself has become much more narrow and has developed a ridge on their dorsal and ventral surface to help with stability. With all of these adaptations to the tail, the shrogger can use their tails for quick bursts of speed by swinging them from side to side, in a similar fashion to the long-extinct shrotters. This can only be done in short bursts, however, as they tire quickly when using the tail.

Unlike their ancestors, the shrogger does not have an established hunting ground, since they have a very different hunting style. This way of hunting involves them following adorned tamow as they make their treks from one island to another. Their large size and many spines protect them from the majority of the ocean’s predators as they make their crossings, and a variety of species tag along to use the adorned tamow as a deterrent to those very same predators as they too make their treks. When the shrogger spots prey, like a tamwodjir or a stegomizer, they will swim deeper in the water column before attacking the prey from below. Shroggers also go after aquatic prey when they can, and will actively seek out rojes such as the fused-shell roj. When they catch a roj, they will hold the prey with their hands until they head to either the shore or onto a raft, where they will proceed to beat the roj against the ground until they break open. After eating the contents inside, they keep the shell shards for later use. This is because they use the shell shards to help butcher their prey once it is caught, allowing them to get the bits of meat they desire before other predators show up on the scene.

Since the shroggers rely heavily upon the adorned tamow to travel from island to island and as cover, they do not prey on them at all. Indeed, they will even help protect young adorned tamows from smaller marine predators, as a higher number of adorned tamow reaching adulthood means more chances for the shrogger to hunt their prey. In the few instances where a shrogger swims in the ocean without any adorned tamow, they are incredibly skittish and do not hunt anything since they are focused on not becoming prey themselves. Shroggers will often use marine tamow rafts as places to rest, while also eating the marine tamow on said raft. This does mean they sometimes have encounters with the pirate waxface. In these rare circumstances, the shrogger will make a retreat back into the water.

Unlike their ancestor, the shrogger has a specific breeding season, which begins at around late spring. When this happens, the shroggers will head towards land, gathering on the many driftwood islands with females then seeking males to breed with. As the chances of finding another female may be slim, male shroggers will battle each other for mating rights, though their fights consist of pressing their foreheads together and shoving each other until one falls over or gives up. Once the victor breeds with the female, they will depart to search for other females, as they are not monogamous shrews. Once the breeding season ends in late summer, the males will head back out to sea, along with any females who failed to mate that year. Pregnant females, however, will instead stay on the driftwood islands they bred on and begin to make a rudimentary den. This is done by gathering sticks and leaning them against other sticks for support in a radial shape, before using dirt to act as a glue to hold the whole thing together, resulting in a tent-like structure. These dens are nowhere near as complicated as some structures built by their ancestors or distant cousins, but it serves its purpose well enough. Shrogger females will proceed to patrol the periphery of the island they have settled for sparkleshrogs or driftwood dashers. If they spot either one, they will try to force them away if possible, and will kill and eat the young of either species, as the other species of shrew and plent compete for the same kinds of prey. The diet of pregnant females and females rearing young is very different from that of males or females without young, as they will tackle a wide variety of terrestrial and semi-aquatic prey ranging from small kakonats to the 2 meter long tamwodjir. Gestation lasts about four months, with the mother then rearing the pups on the island for about 1 and a half years when possible. After that period of time, the youngsters are big and strong enough to follow their mother out to sea, where they spend another 2–3 years under her protection as they learn the skills necessary to live on their own. The shrogger will reach sexual maturity at around 5 years old, which is around the time the mother forces them to live on their own if they had not already left her by that point. Shroggers will reach their full size at around their 7th birthday and can live to be 30 years old, though they typically only live to be 15 or 20 before they receive a fatal injury from hunting prey, get lost out at sea and eventually drown, or fall prey to the ocean’s leviathans such as the terrorfang hafgufa.