Bandersnatch and Jabberwock: Predators of Lump Island

The Anstevan Archipelago in the mid hothouse, 285 MPE, remains for now a land uniquely dominated by trunkos descended from the sea-lumps. They have reached their highest diversity here, as many other hothouse animals could not immediately find their way to the island. The 'lumps' have thus taken many niches in their insular ecosystem, attaining many new and varied forms as they went.

The bandersnatch is one of the most formidable. This is a huge, dreadful, meat-eating sea-lump (though of course, like most Anstevan species, it is no longer in any way associated with the sea.) At 4,000 pounds, this huge species of lumpredator is now one of Serina's larger land predators, and heaviest to hunt this large subcontinental island so far. Like many large rhyncheirids, the bandersnatch's torso is elongated with a tail-like structure to aid in balance when running, but while the 'tail' of scroungers can move side to side, in these animals it is entirely immobile, a stiff, fused extension of the tail vertebrate supporting a storage of fat that the animal uses to endure periods of food scarcity.

Bandersnatches are the most specialized carnivores among trunkos, and have repurposed their sealump ancestor's face flanges, used for grazing, into additional jaw parts. A large dagger-like fang points downward along either side of the hooked beak and serves to restrain large prey animals, including Ansteva's very largest herbivorous trunkos, while the small remnant of the trunk is hooked like that of a carnackle, and aids in holding on to secure the most damaging bite. These facial appendages are powered by huge muscles which anchor on a prominent sagittal crest on the animal's skull. The "teeth" lining the bandersnatch's flanges and trunk are ossified, bony structures with a keratin sheath over them, and those on the former are attached to bony elements that provide support and muscle attachment sites within the flanges. This is an example of convergent evolution to grapplers and the crossjaw scroungers of mainland Serinaustra (the trunk, however, is entirely muscular without skeletal support.)

Solitary hunters, bandersnatches often attack the large lump herds under cover of darkness, taking the young, the weak, and the unwary. Their attack style is to hold on until the prey drops and dies; unlike smaller lumpredators, which are inclined to take sharp bites and retreat until prey is weakened, bandersnatches rush in, take a bite in a vulnerable area, often the throat if possible, and then hold on tightly with their flange daggers while gnawing a huge wound into the animal's flesh with its huge, grinding beak. Bandersnatches have no enemies except other bandersnatches, but this is not to say they are safe. These trunkos kill each other with frequency over territory, mating rights, and food supplies, and all adult individuals are marked with scars and wounds from past conflicts. The trunk, a vulnerable and fleshy organ, is often lost entirely to bites by rivals in older adults, to only minor handicap, as it is not necessary to hunt with. Aggression between bandersnatches is sometimes exploited by would-be prey, which may do the unthinkable to save themselves by running from the territory of one hunter straight into the path of another, causing the animals to attack each other instead of their prey, and letting their food escape.

The vicious and frequent fighting between adult bandersnatches on the island limits their numbers to within the capacity of their habitat to sustain them, meaning turnover of individuals is high, few adults reign in a territory for more than a few years, and death by old age is unusual, with most animals dead before 20 years of age from traumatic injury. With sexual maturity not occurring until 12 years old, and with only the largest of either sex generally able to mate without being harmed, and each chick taking upwards of two years to become independent, this means that overall, few bandersnatches successfully reproduce in their short, violent lives. The danger of being attacked by a rival has produced some novel adaptations in the bandersnatch, in order to defend its offspring. Like all trunkos, these animals incubate a large egg in their neck pouch, but in this species only the female uses it to brood eggs, and males play no role in childcare. The pouch is still present in both sexes, however, and is covered with mobile keratin spikes, which can close the entrance and help shield the neck, and thus the pouch, from bites. In the male, who does not need to carry an egg, the pouch entrance is small and the spines are larger, forming a set of armor solely existing to protect his own throat. Females are always larger than males, which reduces the risk they experience when mating. Even so, only the biggest females can usually successfully brood an egg, as smaller ones are likely to have the egg damaged by a larger female's attack, even with the defensive adaptations around their pouch.

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Not every hunter of 'lump island' is a trunko. The jabberwock is a large, solitary, and flightless tribbat which evolved from the tribulus, which arose from a flying species - the nightbiter - which reached the island at the end of the ice age. One of the most completely terrestrial tribbats ever to live, the jabberwock has no external remnants left of its wings to betray its history as a flying animal. A climbing forest predator, inclined to pounce downward and ambush lumps and other mid-size herbivore prey, once it lost the need to fly with an increase of size and strength, its wing fingers were promptly lost to time, as individuals which lacked them were less inclined to get caught up in thick, thorny vegetation. Though they are very good climbers, using their two arm claws to pull themselves up tree trunks, jabberwocks nonetheless are very competent terrestrial hunters, and can utilize varied hunting strategies to catch prey in different habitats. They have elongated legs - especially their digitigrade hind leg - and a reduced, vestigial hind toe which indicates the ability to perch in trees the way their ancestors did is now less useful than the ability to run at high speeds. Jabberwocks have little endurance, but can reach speeds of 55 miles per hour in short bursts; jumping out from cover when prey comes close by, they can outrun most other animals on the island for a few seconds, giving them the chance to make a kill, even though they soon tire and, if they did not quickly succeed, will soon be forced to give up the chase.

Jabberwocks are mostly nocturnal, hunting alone in forest and savannah environments. Their teeth are quite remarkably specialized for a tribbat, and the homogeneous triangular teeth of their ancestor have become quite differentiated in the front of the mouth. Canine-like teeth have evolved from the two forward-most teeth in the upper jaw, while the four forward teeth in the lower jaw are small and incisor-like; the next one on either side is like a small canine, and then the rest of the cheek teeth remain homodont and still used to shear flesh with each bite. The jabberwock's two largest teeth are specialized killing weapons, and are moveable, able to be held together to deliver a jabbing, saber-like bite to the back of an animal's neck, then pulled apart while buried in the neck muscle, severing neck vertebrae and causing instant death, somewhat similarly to the crossed beak arrangement of some stoatshrike gravediggers. The teeth can likewise be pulled together when biting food to function like a sharp scoop, hooking mouthfuls of meat and pulling them away from the carcass. When feeding closer to the bone, they spread apart and then allow the lower incisors to scrape what flesh remains. When at rest the teeth are naturally splayed, and slot into small pockets in the gums, which ensure they remain moist and protected while the mouth is closed - it takes muscular action to pull the teeth closely together.

Weighing up to 140 pounds, the jabberwock is big enough that it can single-handedly kill animals larger than itself, and so opportunistic social tendencies in the tribulus are now absent - jabberwocks rarely interact, and when they do, it is often confrontational. Females care for one to two pups for only a short time of around 6 weeks, keeping them at a den site and visiting them only for short durations to provide them food, and then leaving them on their own nearly as soon as they are weaned. The young thus differ from nearly all other tribbetheres in being fully independent, precocious hunters at a much smaller size than they eventually reach as adults in another 18 - 24 months. While adults prey mainly on the island's many endemic trunkos, young take smaller prey, beginning with skuzzards and small birds. 

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With its speed and specialized cutting teeth, the small jabberwock is primed to be an enduring island predator on the Anstevan Archipelago. But times are changing, and not all will be so lucky. New animals are evolving here, and as we approach the late hothouse, this island refuge will continue to shift as old players face new competitors that will go to show that success, in the long term, does not necesarilly go hand in hand with derived evolutionary traits. Ansteva's trunkos have infiltrated every niche on this island that they could for lack of competitors which could perform them better. But with fierce new faces just beginning to rise up from origins outside the island, the total domination of the lumpredators here will not last much longer.