Amphibious Fauna Suggestion

Okey-doke. I'm pretty sure this is where to suggest it. If not, I offer ten thousand humble apologies. D:

Anyway, I wrote this up back when I first joined, but I never suggested it because I was afraid of rejection. o_o But.. hey, I've decided to just go for it now. Also, it'll probably be really, really obvious, but I'll say it anyway: Resa-tokc are based off of Earthly leeches.

Anyway, here goes:


Resa-tokc

Category: Amphibian
Biomes: Freshwater, Tropical Rainforest, Wetland
Frequency: Very Common
Active: All day & night in water, dusk & night out of water
Diet: Insectivore, Carnivore
Lifespan: 2-3 years
Size: 6-24 inches, depending on age
Weight: 1-4 pounds


Description:

Resa-tokc, often referred to simply as 'tokc,' are pests. They can range in length from six inches (at birth) to twenty-four inches (only in the longest living specimens; it takes roughly three and a half years for them to grow this long), though their average size is usually fifteen to twenty inches -- the same for both males and females. Their bodies are long and soft, and they only have two finned legs (no arms), which they use to propel themselves forward in mud and water.

They are simple creatures: they have a large mouth with many rows of small, sharp, fish-like teeth that extend a good inch or two back into their throats, which they use to clamp onto and drain the blood from whatever creature they may find, or for catching and grinding up large, thickly-shelled insects; they have one "eyespot" -- a primitive gray blotch above the mouth -- used for sensing only the most drastic changes of surrounding light (ie: night and day); they have two olefactory receptors, one on either side of the eyespot, mostly used for catching the scent of blood, sweat, excrement, et cetera; they have four liquid-filled sacs located in a line up their bodies, used for detecting vibrations in the ground/water surrounding them (they can detect such vibrations up to fifteen feet away, and it is their main way of pinpointing the location of prey); and they have no hearing organs, living their entire lives in deafness.

Despite their awkward shape, they are rather adept swimmers -- so they strike primarily in water, especially when one is wading barefoot in muddy shallows. They latch on with their teethy mouths and gorge themselves on blood until they swell to double or even triple their size, often gaining up to five or six pounds' worth of blood in the process. Anesthetics and anticoagulants in their saliva numb the wound and keep the blood flowing, leaving the victim unaware of the bite and blood pulsing freely from it for up to an hour or two after the resa-tokc drops off.

They can also fair well on land, however, pushing themselves along with their powerful hind legs and sometimes even leaping small distances. They can't stray too far from water, but nearby their swampy home they can still find the sort of bugs and insects that suit their diet. When hunting for bugs, they don't employ stealth as much as when they hunt in the water, because their form is somewhat more awkward on land and it's easier for them to simply charge with their mouths open and hope to catch something. Their teeth can chew through some of the toughest shells.


Habitat:

Resa-tokc live water (or mud, if it's dilute enough), primarily in freshwater bodies, tropical rainforests, and wetlands such as swamps and bogs, existing in large quantities wherever there is a sufficient amount of sludgy, nutrient-rich freshwater and warm temperatures. They thrive in shallows, where they can always use the ground to push off with their hind legs and they are near to the mud of the shore. Often, they live very near to the breeding grounds of insects and the most-traveled paths of other creatures ('dragons included).


Reproduction & Social Life:

Reproduction is simple, though it cuts back dramatically the number of adult males. In the mating ritual, the female searches for and actually eats the entire (usually small) male, ingesting the sperm and sending them directly to the eggs that live in the lining of the female's stomach. The sperm fertilize the eggs, which hatch about a week later into centimeter-long babies; the babies then live in the stomach of the mother until they are about six inches long, taking about six months (their initial growth rate is far faster than that of an adult's average growth rate). Once the babies are large enough, the female regurgitates them and they go on their way.

As for "social life," resa-tokc are fairly solitary creatures -- occasionally, they swarm in huge quantities to the shores of whatever water they live in, piling atop each other and effectively blocking the way of most creatures, though scientists have yet to understand why -- usually, resa-tokc eat any fellow tokc they may come across. They have no practical reason to be together, and, as their brains don't seem to be advanced enough to grasp the concept of "friendship," "family," or "love," they do not form any longterm relationships with other creatures they encounter.

 

Squee! Thank you so much.

Now I just have to think of a logical reason for one of my characters to be in a tokc-infested area... >:D