Gannegator

220 MPE

Strait of Striata-Whalteria

On a mudflat shrouded in mist, a pair of gannegators hauls out to rest. Sharp-jawed, fish-eating predators, they are superbly adapted to maneuver through murky waterways ranging from the sea coast to fully freshwater rivers. On land, though, they are cumbersome. Though two short, sharp claws remain on each flipper, their back feet are virtually useless and positioned so far back on their bodies as to resemble a fluked tail. Some 10 feet in length and 350 pounds, they are bumblets, among the biggest yet to live.

The gannegator has evolved from the estuarine bumblet, and is just one descendant species which now exhibits an aquatic lifestyle and associated morphology. As fully livebearing birds, these creatures are free of the need to return to shore to lay eggs which characterizes other non-metamorphic birds, and this has been a major advantage to bumblets in colonizing oceanic environments since the end of the Thermocene. The gannegator nonetheless prefers a life near the margins of sea and shore; though it can only move agilely in water and finds all its food in it, it cannot sleep without its nostrils above the surface to breathe, and as its nose is located high on its head near its eyes, it finds it much easier to flop out and nap on the beach every so often than to try and position itself in a way to rest while submerged, as a crocodile might do. The gannegator, unlike a crocodile, is also an endothermic, warm-blooded animal, and so it must breathe more regularly to survive. Though able to endure up to twenty minutes below water, it prefers shorter duration of five to ten minutes between breaths.

To fuel its high metabolism, a gannegator must eat regularly too. These creatures have evolved to hunt fish by sweeping their greatly elongated beaks through murky, sediment-filled water to disturb benthic prey items. Six keratin teeth emerge from the tip of the upper bill, slicing and wounding fish as it strikes them. The gannegator can hunt even in darkness, small pores in its beak detecting faint electrical impulses given off by the movement of nearby prey. Honing in on hidden targets, it strikes suddenly with rapid side to side motions of its head to flay its food before catching it in its serrated jaws. Chunks of flesh, bone and scales often get caught between its 'teeth', and when it emerges from the water for a bit of rest, small shorebirds called toothpicks sometimes aid the bumblets in dental hygiene by clambering on top of, and even inside their beaks, pecking out the tidbits left behind. A fish-eating specialist, the gannegator lacks the impetus to hunt when outside water, and so these small water-associated canaries - members of the shrieker lineage - wander freely between their mouths without worry of being caught themselves. 

Gannegators are not aggressive animals; their toothy veneer does not match their temperament, which is shy and retiring. They are very tolerant of others of their kind, especially when hauled out on shore, and more eyes provide a look-out for danger. Males and females are identical, and while only females actively provide care to their twin offspring, fathers pay them no mind and will tolerate youngsters even crawling on their backs. Females care for their young for a full year, first in a hidden riverbank burrow and later with her pups following close behind her as she forages. Though the young are born altricial and helpless, within four months they begin hunting bits of food for themselves. Full adulthood is reached in the third year, though both sexes may reproduce when still growing at age two.