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The Other Otterns — Description
Believed to be descended from seabirds who traded their wings for a pair of forelimbs tipped by talon and fleshy pad, otterns are a common and diverse clade found throughout Drecel. The Direrne , among their largest, is the apex predator in the Pyreplume Valley however several species can be found in it's shadow.
1. The Dappled Slottern. This peculiar climber can be found hanging upside down from branches of trees. Its range is limited to the dense strands of forests found throughout the valley. On the ground, it prefers to slowly amble on its hind legs, its forelimbs can bare weight if climbing but not while walking. Slotterns have the slowest metabolism and are the least intelligent. They are belligerent creatures of habit that fiercely defend a home tree for which a mating pair have carved out a hollow so they can lay their eggs inside. With their large, deep beaks crushing up fruits, cones, nuts, gathering leaves, and crushing up arboreal wyrms.
2. The Crimson Dabblerne. This vibrant little ottern is part of a family convergent with ducks and geese. Found along the riverbank, in deltas, and the oxbow wetlands, several species of dabblerne reside, but the Crimson is most commonly found within the lowlands between the Cavern Entrance and the Seager's First Village. They live in large mix-sex flocks. Males are slightly larger then females but plumage is identical. Not particularly fast on land or in the water, dabblernes will either use their claws to attack a predator or flee to the safety of their bankside burrows. They are talented diggers however an over abundance of these birds can cause increased erosion. Thankfully their are a favored prey species of the giant prye vay, river wyrms, Venery Basilisks, and vesps.
3. The Disassembling Falcat. Related to the much larger Direrne and sharing in it's reticulate scale "hoof", this medium-sized predator is a mothdeer specialist. Several closely related species of these large lepidopterans known collectively as dazzlewings mingle on the grasslands. Some varieties have poisonous meat, a holdover from their noxious diets as a caterpillar. In order to sense which parts of its prey are poisonous, the falcat has prominent barbs on its face. These modified feathers sheath around a nerve ending and a collection of taste buds. If poison is detected, it falls off. Falcats are among the fastest on Drecel, able to sustain speeds approaching 50mph for short bursts. They target the mothdeer's abdomen which holds the insect's primary spiracles and lungs and needs to be semiflexible to allow for contraction and expansion with each breath. The falcat bites at the weak points, causing the mothdeer to loose stamina and collapse while still alive. The ottern earns the first half of its name by disassembling the mothdeer as one might do to a crab or lobster: the bitter wings and head parts are removed, then using its long yet flat claw, the falcat scrapes the meat off of the endoskeleton. This breaking down process is tedious and can attract attention from scavengers. As such, this species is social, adults live in small groups of 3 to 5. During hunts, one will make the kill, one will break down the carcass, while the others defend the exhausted hunter and preoccupied disassembler. Groups are often made up of related individuals such as a mother and her adult offspring, siblings, or brothers and a shared mate.
4. The Blue Obis. Obises are longnecked and longlegged otterns that are otherwise morphologically and behaviorally primitive for the clade. They are wading birds who hunt for small game. Like the dabblernes, they burrow to make nests near a body of water. The blue obis is a wary bird and prefers creeks or small ponds as opposed to the main river.