Kangglider Variations & The Isleglider

290 Million Years Post-Establishment

Though different forms of kangglider show different patterns of behavior as much as physical changes, these are believed to be primarily linked to those physical changes and not themselves genetic in nature. Simply put, different body types force those individuals with recessive genes altering their musculature and wing size to compensate in how they act. Flutterers are not as strong on the ground but are more capable to control their movement in the air, while cliff-gliders are the least fit of all and are forced to become relatively sedentary and seek higher ground for safety compared to the other forms which can travel over flat terrain. And though sudden reappearance of recessive genes in soarers is responsible for the creation of entirely new populations of the poorly-mobile cliff-glider phenotype, for example, over time such populations will naturally breed more amongst each other than with other morphs, which results in additional "complimentary" genes being selected for which can further favor certain behaviors which may be beneficial only to cliff-gliders, and not so much to soarers. Yet soarers still are useful to the cliff glider, which cannoy itself travel far from its territory, for their role in transporting genes between otherwise isolated cliff-glider populations as soarers mate with them where they meet as the soarers constantly wnader the continent's open grassland regions which just so happen to be pocketed with countless sky islands and karst regions. They are the ocean of gene flow between genetic islands, maintaining genetic diversity within each.

Because the plains and the cliffs are always nearby each other spatially, young individual kanggliders can easily find the habitat which best suits them as they gain independence from their mothers, even if their ideal habitat is not the same as their parents'. Flutterers, though rarer than soarers, can also carry the cliff-glider genotype in the same way because the two recessive genes occur on different chromosomes, and likewise cliff-gliders can (more rarely) produce genetic flutterers when they mate together. This means that a kangglider can be both a cliff-glider and a flutterer genetically if it shows both recessive traits visually. When both genes exist together like this, however, the cliff-glider phenotype naturally dominates by reducing the length of the wing finger to make fluttering flight ineffective, forcing the animal to live like any other cliff-glider. Yet these double recessive individuals still inherit stronger breast muscles, which may provide benefit in making them better climbers that can potentially be fitter than their cliff-glider kin who lack this additional flutterer gene. The bright color most common to cliff-gliders is the result of additional genetic mutations which have appeared several times in different glider populations. They sometimes also appear in soarers and flutterers, but may result in increased mortality by making them stand out from their fellows in a group on the predator-rich plains.

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The isleglider is an insular descendant of the flutterer ecotype of kangglider that can be found only in the southern Trilliontree Islands, where other members of this species are extremely rare visitors - and even then, only vagrant flutterers, with their increased ability to fly, can sometimes make the sea crossing to reach here. It has been mostly separated from the wider gene pool its species for at least 300,000 years, with interbreeding being very rare and likely only occuring a couple times every few centuries, with minimal genetic contribution coming from outside the island on a population-wide level. Islegliders have thus begun to evolve down their own path, becoming highly distinct as a clade in a way that the three primary ecotypes (which can all each give birth to each other, due to their traits being controlled by a small number of genes) have not yet done.

Islegliders are, at their core, an aberrant variation of the flutterer ecotype, but one that has accumulated numerous complimentary genes over time to adapt them to their specific environment. They are consistently the smallest kanggliders, have a striking body color favoring dark blue hues of both skin and plumage, and are more carnivorous than mainland forms. Despite their small size and flutterer origins though, they are not very strong fliers, and have experienced a secondary atrophy of their breast muscles due to not needing strong sustained flight ability on resource-rich island habitats with fewer competitors for energy-rich foods. Islegliders can still flutter enough to reach the upper branches of trees, where they habitually perch in trees to roost at night - something no other kangglider does regularly - and have longer and more flexible digits on both hands and feet to grasp branches, as well as larger and more recurved claws. Yet their lower legs are also very long, almost as extreme in proportion to the soaring ecotype, and this makes them fast on the ground where they do all of their daytime foraging. Islegliders can leap, like other kanggliders, but in the tight confines of the forest they switch instead to a walking gait, and jump only when moving through open glades or along shorelines when they may still be seen to take short glides through the air on wind currents during which they rarely seem to flutter their wings at all. But their ability to fly is not entirely lost, only repurposed. Though they cannot cross the sea on their own wings any longer, they are now built for rapid vertical take-off and fluttering flight for a very short, fast burst of speed that, in addition to reaching their roost, they often use to catch flying birds and insects.

Indeed, while most kanggliders feed mainly on grasses and other vegetation as adults, islegliders have more options and have evolved to be much more particular in their diets, becoming primarily carnivorous (but still highly omnivorous overall.) They selectively feed on seeds, fruits, insects, and small animals, and take only 10-15% of their diet as foliage at all. Though all kanggliders sometimes hunt small prey, islegliders do so much more effectively, as their family units are longer-lasting and more complex than in their relatives, allowing mated pairs and several generations of offspring to remain together for several seasons and form cooperative hunting packs. These groups work together with some members seeking to drive smaller animals out of hiding in leaf litter and the brushy vegetation at the edge of the forest so that other members of the pack can catch it in their talons, usually dispatching it with a few well-aimed kicks. The entire group shares the spoils of a hunt, starting with the youngest and most dependent members. Up to 60% of the diet is now animal in origin, compared to 10-25% of other kangglider varieties. A capacity for increased social complexity and a preference for flesh foods are likely both associated with the evolution of the isleglider's most interest habit: cooperating with other predators outside their own species. Primarily the kakraptor, a fierce carnivorous scrounger, is their partner. The kakraptor is larger and much more capable of killing big game than the isleglider, and at first it may simply seem the isleglider follows it around much like a vulture to finish its scraps. In fact the glider takes a surprisingly active part in the hunt, infiltrating herds of animals that it could never possibly hunt on its own to locate the weakest individuals, and then leading the kakraptor to them to increase its hunting success; the kakraptor will tolerate them as they feed alongside it, because the small amount of food they consume is insignificant compared to how much more food it can acquire by following their cues. The isleglider will sometimes also emit shrill alarm vocalizations with the intent to alarm or confuse other animals and cause them to flee toward the raptor's waiting ambush. Some of these calls are innate, but others are learned and emulate the calls of other unrelated species, making the isleglider one of the only skuorcs with a capacity to mimic noises, and also one of a few groups of non-sparrowgull animals to also use them in an intelligent, deceptive way. The rarest and yet most complex of all strategies sometimes used to lure prey is one that does not require the kakraptor's help at all: by using the imitation of the distress cries of an infant animal, most often a monkcat, the pack can draw in, then catch and kill any concerned adult that approaches to investigate.

Islands are like laboratories for evolution's workings, allowing organisms to evolve in ways they would rarely be afford the chance to in mainland environments. It is fitting that this would be the home of the first truly new species (or subspecies) of kangglider, whether that is already the isleglider today, or whether it will take a few hundred thousand years more for it to be truly isolated and no longer part of the same kind. A species with such a wide range of diversity and plasticity of both anatomy and behavior is certain to diverge into many more descendant species in the future yet to come, as other populations will ultimately become cut-off from one another in the increasingly colder and more arid world to come. As the hothouse approaches its end, the isleglider will be just the first of many possible new descendants of a clade that seems well-adapted to face the changing world around it.