Black Snipper

The black snipper is a small whiskerwhale native to open oceans. This species is a member of the most derived clade of its group, those with short bodies, large dorsal fins, and crescent-shaped tail flukes that make them very fast open-water swimmers. Black snippers are nocturnal carnivores that, like all whiskerwhales, have large eyes that can make the most of limited light; snippers are unique in that their eyes retract to slits in higher light conditions, like cats; for this reason members of the family are known generally as sharkitties. Don't be lured into a sense of ease by this cutesy name - these are deadly, carnivorous animals that bite first and ask questions later, and are some of the swiftest hunters of the late hothouse sea.

Black snippers are one species of sharkitty that have evolved specialized jaws that function like scoops and are used to bite small mouthfuls of meat from much bigger sea animals, particularly sea horses and giant snarks, while they sleep. Like nightbiters in the air, when feeding in this way they straddle the line of predator and parasite, for these bites are generally non-fatal to their prey. Cranial kinesis in both jaws allows the tips of the jaws, lined with steak knife-like serrations, to open up 180 degrees to quickly bite a very wide surface, then pull closed with a twist of the head to the side that neatly cuts away a small plug of high-calorie tissue, mostly skin and fat. Snippers are not obligated to feed in this way if other food is available, however, and indeed it is mostly only males which depend on this method of feeding throughout their lives. Snippers, especially females, can also catch fish, unwary seabirds and tribbfishers, and sometimes even other whiskerwhales larger than themselves by working together to mob and kill through traumatic blood loss.  

Sharkitties such as the black snipper stand out from other whiskerwhales for their well-developed parental care and social organization. Fewer pups are born than in more basal whiskerwhales, and usually litters are composed of three to six, which stay with their mother after birth rather than dispersing. Breeding females in turn live with two to four other usually related females, providing protection to the young in a social group in which only the oldest, largest female is dominant and usually able to reproduce. Young are fed by the adults of the pod until they are big enough to begin biting large prey on their own, though they also hunt small animals on their own opportunistically from as young as one week old. Males leave their natal group at a year of age and live solitary adult lives while females stay with the group for two to three years, taking over duties helping feed the pods' next litter of pups while older sisters disperse to start their own pods. As only females live in groups, only they occasionally hunt and kill prey as a pack, while adult males eat almost exclusively small bites from much bigger animals in a non-fatal manner. Female groups caring for young need more food than solitary males, and so during these times they spend more time hunting and killing smaller animals, which provide more food at once than sneaking small bites from unwary giants who, once bitten, become defensive.