This is our final design for male and female, adult and baby. We worked hard to develop this amazing creature, and gave our report our best attempts, and we know it's pretty good. This creature took inspiration from the Animal Attic at the museum, and two completely different ideas or ours to create this wonderful alien. Below the Clarmpek is the final report for our incredible Corlupe.

The Corlupe has two main food sources, which are the ones below. There is also the Sunnock, a vital plant in the Corlupe nature.

THE CORLUPE

By Eila & Brianna

Have you ever wondered what an animal from another planet would look like? Well I have the perfect example. The Corlupe, also known as Corniger Lupus. The Corlupe is a unique and well adapted creature that lives on a very cold planet where the hottest is 16 degrees!

APPEARANCE/ADAPTATIONS

The Corlupe, also known as Corniger Lupus, has many physical as well as behavioural adaptations that give it advantages in their hostile environment. These are its physical features that allow it to survive in its cold environment. Its shape resembles a wolf, but bigger (1m-1.3m Female, 1.2m-1.5m Male), and its body is thinner, longer muzzle, wider paws, longer tail, ball of glowing yellow fur at the end of its tail, long sharp front teeth, long sticky tongue, extra hidden set of nostrils further up the nose, horns on its head and scales on its back and along its tail for the male, but the female has spines like a stegosaurus on its back.

 The horns and long muzzle for both males and females allow them to pierce the ice and dip their snouts in the water beneath to snap up fish with their long sharp front teeth and long sticky tongue, and they close the nostrils at the end of its snout to breathe through the hidden nostrils. Their powerful stomach acid dissolves the fish bones, so they don’t get it stuck in their intestines.

The shell acts like armour, protecting the male Corlupe’s back, as well as along the tail. The shell on the tail is helpful for whacking any predator that tries to sneak up behind and attack, or if they jump onto its back. For females, the stegosaurus spines mean few animals will willingly jump onto the narrow hard to land on plates. Even if a predator succeeds, the female's tail is surprisingly heavy and strong, so they would have a surprise coming their way.

Their body shape is thin to make it slightly lighter in case it steps on a thin patch of ice, and its wide paws with tall papillae distribute weight across the surface of the ice. A layer of insulating sin prevent the paws from getting cold. An extra claw can extend from the back of each ankle to bury itself in the slippery surface.

With long fur and a fat store under its shell for males, and between/under the plates for females, as well as a large size, the Corlupe is well equipped for the cold. Often cubs are born in pairs, keeping each other warm. Most of the time, Corlupe adults and their cubs travel with at least one other adult, often their mate. 

The glowing yellow ball at the end of its tail helps attract a mate, which brings us to the next subject, just after the cubs. 

The female cub has armour protecting her tail while it grows heavier, but the male doesn't. Instead, he has layers of fluff until his shell forms. The baby male has a little ridge of horns that become useless when adult. The middle ones form together and grow to create his horn. For both male and female, their muzzles will lengthen with time. For the female, her horn closest to her snout will grow, while the others slowly separate and grow into the longer ones. Both have little spines along their back, but the females will grow bigger and the males will flatten and grow wider. Neither have the fat store or second pair of nostrils, but those will come in time.

BEHAVIOUR 

The Corlupe has a special behaviour that allows it to live peacefully with other members of the species. Unlike some other animals, Corlupe don't fight over territory, unless there are too many Corlupe in the area. Often if a travelling Corlupe comes looking for territory, the Corlupe joins the others in the territory. Both see it as a chance for warmth and food.

A Corlupe lives from 60-80 years, and together the Dog (Male) and Vixen (Female) raise cubs every 10 years, meaning each will raise about 7 (avg) cubs.

In the warm season, many Corlupe gather in patches of tussock-like plants that glow yellow, called Sunnock. Sunnock absorbs the little sunlight that shines and uses it to glow, drawing Corlupe to them. 

The Corlupe sleep among the plants, inhaling little glowing particles that drift off the Sunnock, and their bodies transfer it down to their tail, allowing it to glow and attract a mate. If two Dogs want the same Vixen, the female will either pick one or watch them as they give a show of horns, ramming against each other until the female decides who she wants, or one of the males give up. Corlupe mate for life, unless one dies, then the other searches for a new mate. 

Corlupe cubs are often born in pairs to keep each other warm. They observe their parents to learn how to break ice and fish. From 1 year old, they will begin to pierce ice and seek out fish to eat. When a cub is 6-8 years old, they are fully fledged and look to seek out a mate. 

HABITAT

The Corlupe lives in a beautiful place full of Sunnock. The places they live have multiple Sunnock patches, ice thick enough to hold their weight but not too thick for them to pierce. Their habitat has lots of snow to allow them to blend with the background, and it has plenty of boulders to dig beneath the snow under them for shelter, as well as allowing the Corlupe to duck behind it if trying not to be seen by predator or prey. This habitat has at least a few fresh water sources, like small streams or little puddles of water that seeped through the ice. Often it’s not a small area, because Corlupe live in groups, so a small area doesn’t hold enough fish or small ground dwelling creatures for them all to feed on. Sunnock glows because it absorbs the sun's light, and sometimes takes back the light the Corlupe produce, and they turn it into a bio-luminescent substance that gets spread throughout the Sunnock.

PREDATORS AND PREY

Corlupe aren’t the only predators around. There are a few other animals that at first glance see them as a tasty meal. Often they prove hard to catch though. Animals like Clarmpek and the Obsidian Furred Bear both attack a Corlupe at least every now and then. The predators that kill the most Corlupe are Clarmpek. With their big mouth and slippery body they make a formidable predator, taking down up to 30 Corlupe a day.

Of course, Corlupe aren’t at the bottom of the food chain. They use their horns and claws to pierce the ice and, using the secret extra set of nostrils on the base of their muzzle, poke their snout down the hole to use their sharp teeth and long sticky tongue to snap up fish. Fish are their main food source, but if they stumble upon a Belly-Bat (A small creature twice the size of a grown adult's hand, with a shell like the male Corlupe’s.), They will eagerly jump on it, flip it over and eat it. The same goes for any other small creature they happen to cross paths with. They eat as much food as possible to build up the fat store which also means they can go for longer without food. The longest record of a Corlupe not eating that we have recorded is 34 days! The average each Corlupe can last without food is 4 weeks or 28 days. The Corlupe sometimes wanders around the lake or river looking for the perfect place and time to strike, or they find a nice thin patch of ice to dig through and find fish. Corlupe can eat up to 30 kg, or about 4,000-4,500 calories of fish and other small creatures per day.

OTHER FUN FACTS

The Corlupe has other interesting facts. Here are some below:

• A group of Corlupe is called a Skulk.

• The biggest known group was recorded to be 6 adult Corlupe and 5 cubs, making it 11 Corlupe.

• A Corlupe can only hold its breath for an average of 25 seconds, since they are used to breathing through two sets of nostrils.

• Occasionally a Corlupe can have a white glowing tail, a bit like how animals can be albino. Also, like how humans sometimes have extra toes or fingers, Corlupe can have extra claws or horns.

• The average length of a Corlupes snout is about 12-18 cm.

• A Corlupe has about 55-60 teeth lining the inside of their mouths.

• A Corlupes tongue measures from 1-1.5 feet. It has a chemical that makes it sticky when submerged in water. Then it is sticky enough to pull a fish a little way in, enough for it to crunch it up in their long muzzle.

• The second pair of nostrils doesn’t smell anything. That job is left to the visible pair. The hidden set is modified to breathe efficiently even though they are small.

• A Corlupe can sit for hours at max searching for a fish under the ice.

• The population of Corlupe is not endangered. With few predators, Corlupe thrive with numbers of about 1 million to 1.5 million. Since they are a new discovery, the exact number is unknown.

• The Corlupe has a unique way of healing. They heal like any earth animal, but to speed the process and prevent infection, they lick their wound, just like any wolf. How does this help? Well, they submerge their tongue in water, making it sticky. For their tongue to be sticky, it oozes out a gel. That gel can solidify, not rock solid, but hard enough to not ooze everywhere. It dissolves when the body sends chemicals to heal it, so it doesn't get in the way. The gel also contains a disinfectant stronger than the one in an ants saliva. This helps to clean the wound. It has another two chemicals, Glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate, which assists with the healing. 

CONCLUSION

The Corlupe is a very interesting alien, and I hope you think so too. It has many awesome adaptations and fun facts. Scientists are trying hard to find out more, like their exact numbers and more. Overall, the Corlupe is an impressive creature that sits on a high place on the Planet X food web.