Glacial Gork

250 MPE

Serinaustran Steppe

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The strangest of the circuagodonts are, no doubt, the gorks. They are capable of short-term bipedal movement, something no other tribbet has accomplished, and they are carnivorous - independently of the carnivore wheeljaws. And the biggest of those is the glacial gork, also the most independent of riverine habitats, for it feeds mainly on dry land.

Glacial gorks are exceedingly tall and lanky animals which are native to the northern parts of the Serinaustran steppe. They are sometimes migratory, traveling south in warm seasons, but they are absent from the coldest and driest reaches of the region, likely due to their elongated body shape being unsuited to retain warmth in prolonged extremely low temperatures. Snow, however, is not a problem; with long legs and splayed toes, they walk through it easily and don't sink too far in.

These animals feed on small molodonts almost exclusively, using their long hind legs to pluck them from the ground while striding for short distances on just two legs. In summer they hunt in tall grass, where their five-foot height lets them keep a vantage of their surroundings, but in winter they excel in detecting hidden prey as it scurries in burrows just beneath the surface of the snow. Listening intently with its radar dish-like ears, the glacial gork pinpoints the location of its prey and then plunges its tail-talons down through the snow to snatch and kill its victim unaware. Its jaws are slender and deeply serrated, like kitchen shears. Where its ancestors once cut grass, it now slices flesh and bone, rending the whole bodies of its prey animals into fine slivers before swallowing. It rarely eats any sort of plant, and is the most carnivorous gork. The stomach is consequently greatly reduced, which also has the effect of making the abdomen more compact, putting the animal's center of balance more forward, and improving its balance when standing and stepping on its forelegs alone. The hind leg does not function as a balancing tail, however - when not in use catching prey, it is used to support weight and allow a typical tripod galloping gait, even when carrying food.

The glacial gork practices monogamous mate bonding, and pairs persist for several seasons, though rarely for life. The female gives birth in a den dug out in a north-facing slope in early spring, where the sun will warm the soil more than in other locations. One or two, very rarely three pups will be whelped, which are born less developed than most circuagodonts and in need of prolonged parental protection. They can only walk with extreme difficulty at birth, and are clumsy and splay-legged; it will take three weeks before they begin to leave the den and over three months before they are capable of hunting even the smallest of prey without assistance. Initially the mother stays with her young around the clock, with the father bringing food to the family at all hours of the day. After three weeks, both parents begin making foraging trips to sustain the pups' growing appetites, and they are greeted with enthusiastic nuzzling when they return; this species demonstrates a greeting behavior whenever parents return to their young or meet with their mate after time apart, where both individuals will press their foreheads together and emit soft chirping calls, reassuring one another and affirming social bonds. They are among the most socially complex circuagodonts.

Born almost black, by the time the young start to follow the adults into the grass and learning to hunt they have acquired a brown and white striped pattern that helps hide them in the vegetation. As they grow up, their coat color fades to a pale silver, but pale remnants of the striped pattern remain and develop into a reticulated marking across their legs and shoulders. Young are initially clumsy and can only walk on three legs; their balance improves with age, and they can begin striding on just two around 4 months old. They not entirely independent until around 6 months of age, though, when they will leave their parents. Due to the seasonality of the climate, there is only one litter born per year.