Handlicker Dundi

The handlicker dundi's role is equivalent to that of a fox, coyote or raccoon, for it will opportunistically eat many things. With the exception of its long, spindly digits, its unspecialized body reflects this.

By coating its fingers with sticky saliva and then quickly pushing its fingers into the ground or a woolly xenobee hive, it can capture prey and evade social defenses. This method of feeding is similar to a chimpanzee sticking a twig into a nest of termites, or an aye-aye using its elongated middle finger to snag grubs within trees. While feeding at a woolly xenobee hive, it may stand on its hind legs, supported by one arm wrapped around the trunk of the arid ferine. As arid ferrines are so tall, the handlicker dundi can only prey upon the woolly xenobee hive if the hive is especially low on the arid ferrine, or the arid ferrine is young, or stunted, or fallen over, or any combination of the factors. It may feed multiple times on the same hive in one day. By running off after a few minutes or even seconds of feeding and then returning when the hive has calmed down, it avoids having poison dust blown into its eyes. It uses practically the same tactic for acquiring undergroundis.

The handlicker dundi also uses its sticky fingers for capturing high grassland ukback young. It will sneak over to the prey, lick its digits, and trap the target in one movement. Not every strike succeeds, however.

It sleeps in burrows made by snoofloos or plentshirshus. (Like its distant relative, the jongfoll, it may use plentshirshu burrows that are unfortunately not abandoned.)

Despite its gangly limbs, the handlicker dundi is not very fast, and its claws are too delicate for much use as natural weapons. For this reason, it has several predators, such as the snoofloo, the briarback, high grassland ukback, plehexapod, tasermane, and plentshirshu. It survives mainly by its apparent cowardice and fairly large litter sizes.