Scrabblegrabber

The scrabblegrabber is a scansorial scrounger of the jungles of north Serinaustra, 280 million years post-establishment, which is noted for its grasping feet, with two toes which can be rotated backwards to perch in trees or cling to vertical trunks, and for its large claw-like keratin sheaths on the tip of each tentacle. An omnivore with a varied diet, it favors fruit and the larvae of ants, which often make their nests in tree hollows or on branches. Scrabblegrabbers have flexible hips and long, muscular thighs, which let them climb trees upward, one foot after the other, much like an ape would climb with its arms. The tentacle claws are used to assist in pulling itself up when necessary, but are mostly used in acquiring food. It plucks fruit, pries apart tree bark to find insects, and occasionally kills smaller birds or other animals by snatching them up in its tentacles and pressing their hooks into them, or by beating them against the tree with either tentacle or foot claws. Nectar is taken too, normally in the form of eating entire flowers from whole branches of a blossoming tree, though for an animal weighing up to 50 pounds, it is a sweet treat and little more, not produced abundantly enough to sustain it, and only found occasionally.

Intelligent and adaptable, scrabblegrabbers can find food both in trees and on the ground. Though adapted to climb, their legs are still long, and they can run on flat surfaces by raising their talons up to protect them from wear. They may also adopt an energetically efficient leaping gait when crossing significant distances over land, and are equally capable jumpers when in the trees, bounding from trunk to trunk so as to avoid coming to ground unnecessarily, spreading their legs and "hugging" each tree as they land.  Often foraging singly, pairs form during nesting as both partners aid in caring for a brood of two to four chicks in a nest cavity excavated or expanded mainly by the male as a courtship gesture. The red head plumage of this scrounger is useful for visual display when in the open, but also camouflage when nesting, as the red quickly vanishes from sight in the dark, appearing black. Cooperative nesting is common and pairs may be aided by one or two sibling of either parent or, later, by grown offspring from prior broods. This assistance is not strictly vital, but improves chick survival rates by ensuring a more even distribution of food, and less time spent unsupervised and apt to fall victim to predators. Chicks are not independent of their parents for 2-3 years time, though they are fully grown by 18 months, and begin leaving the nest at two months old, when they may be around 25% of their adult size. This long period of dependence is related to learning to navigate a complex forest environment and to access many different types of food, some of which are seasonal. Many fruits consumed by the scrabblegrabber are toxic to some degree, and to solve this problem, they have learned to visit clay deposits near riverbanks; consuming this material aids in absorbing poisons from their diet so that they pass harmlessly through the digestive tract.