Maugrat
| Maugrat | ||
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| (Champsorattus deinovorax) | ||
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| Information | ||
| Creator | OviraptorFan Other | |
| Week/Generation | 27/167 | |
| Habitat | Iituem Plains Archipelago, Iituem Archipelago Temperate Beaches, Iituem Temperate Bay (crossing between islands only) | |
| Size | 1.9 meters long | |
| Primary Mobility | Unknown | |
| Support | Endoskeleton (Jointed Wood) | |
| Diet | Carnivore (Tilepillar (adults breeding on the beaches), Gulperskunik, Seashrog, Stowaway Harmbless, Hockel, Kakonat, Shailnitor, Shorelance, Fatcoat, Topship Shrog, Rockshorian, Rosybeak Phlyer, Sitting Dundi, Varant, Velocitoon, Pink Scrambler, Ferry Quail, Stygmogg (occasionally)), Scavenger, Kleptoparasite (Stygmogg kills) | |
| Respiration | Active (Lungs) | |
| Thermoregulation | Heterotherm | |
| Reproduction | Sexual (Two Sexes, Live Birth) | |
| Taxonomy | ||
| Domain Superkingdom Kingdom Subkingdom Phylum Class Subclass Order Family Genus Species | Eukaryota Viridisagania Mancerxa Phytozoa (info) Chloropodia (info) Phyllauria (info) Xylodonta (info) Exododonta Diramphodontidae Champsorattus Champsorattus deinovorax | |
| Ancestor: | Descendants: |
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Isolated on the Iituem Archipelago, the local populations of varant would be presented with a unique opportunity. With local predators on the archipelago either being fairly small or are adapted to hunt aquatic/rafting prey, the varants of the archipelago could grow much bigger than their mainland counterparts. This would lead to some groups splitting off and becoming a distinct taxon in their own right, known as the maugrat.
While the varant still supplemented a mostly meat-based diet with fruit and other easy to consume flora, the maugrat has become completely carnivorous, living entirely on a diet of meat. The maugrat has also become a big game hunter, tackling prey that is larger than itself depending on the circumstances. A common prey item for the maugrat are the local varieties of shrog (though the maugrat avoids the particularly large and aggressive wolfcollar shrog), as well as rockshorians. To tackle prey larger than itself, the maugrat has become much more specialized for grappling a target, the forelimbs being much larger and even more muscular than the forelimbs of the varant, while the innermost digit has also turned into a sickle claw that helps hook onto a victim. As the maugrat is not built for speed and most of its prey can outrun the nodent in a prolonged chase, the maugrat relies on ambush to make a kill, rushing out of cover to either smack the prey if its small or to grapple with it if it's big enough. In either case, the maugrat's will deploy a precise bite to make the kill, its two upper incisors acting as saber teeth. This style of hunting hearkens back to the hunting strategies of the long extinct wargrats, a case of convergent evolution amongst nodents. Although the maugrat primarily gets their meat by killing prey, the nodent will not say no to carrion, and will even drive packs of stygmoggs off of their own kill as the maugrat dwarfs the bearhogs.
While the maugrat is a ferocious predator of it's archipelago, it does have larger carnivores to worry about in the form of the pirate waxface, though the saucebacks "sees" the maugrat as a competitor over it's food source (shrogs) rather than as potential prey. If it finds itself in a confrontation against a waxface, the maugrat utilizes its more extensive wooden plates to provide some protection against the mandibles while the nodent can fight back by smacking the pirate waxface with their powerful tail. If this does not work, the maugrat is more than capable of getting into a brawl, its powerful bite and sharp claws being well suited for delivering nasty wounds to their opponent. These defenses mean nothing, however, when the maugrat takes to the water to swim from one island to another. In these treks, a maugrat is highly vulnerable to attacks from predatory scylarians such as pygmy lyngbakrs, who can catch the nodent by surprise through ambushing them from below. While the maugrat can have a powerful burst of speed in the water through kicking their hind limbs and thrashing their tail back and forth, and they can swim for several days without taking a break, a maugrat is not very agile in the water. As such, a maugrat will try to minimize the amount of time they are in water when possible, often clambering onto rafts of vegetation or even shrog rafts to both rest and avoid the dangers of the water, though in the latter case it can often be harassed off by the shrogs on said raft.
If the maugrat does not fall victim to predation during these treks between islands, the nodent can live as long as forty years, far longer than their ancestors could live. Since the species travels between islands to avoid depleting one island of food as well as finding mates, maugrats do not have a set territory. As such, maugrats do not really fight each other as much as their ancestors did, with males only engaging in combat when they are fighting over a mate. The breeding season for maugrats is in late winter, where a receptive female will stay put on an island and mark her scent on various rocks and foliage. If a male smells the pheromones, he will head towards the source and hang around the female for about a week, fighting off any potential competitors during this time frame. If the male keeps his place for the whole week, the two will mate and bond for this particular breeding season, with the female later giving birth to around three to five offspring. The pair will stick together and rear the pups on the island for about four weeks, after which the male will depart and the female has to care for the young on their own. Usually by this time, the mother and her family would have eaten or driven off most of the available prey, so they typically must head to another island. During these trips, the pups will stay close to their mother, even holding onto her back if they can, since the pups are even more vulnerable to predators than their mother. The pups will accompany their mother during their trips between islands for an additional month, before being big and strong enough to strike it out on their own. Unlike the varant, maugrats do not form lifelong bonds, with the female often bonding with another male next year for the breeding season.