The Trunkos

This guest entry was written and illustrated by Troll Man

During the Ultimocene, the dominance of flightless birds gradually lessened as the numerous grazing tribbetheres grew in complexity, adapting to consume vegetation at an efficiency no avian herbivore could hope to match. Free of the need to nest for periods of the year, and with pulverizing mouthparts, circuagodonts and molodonts pushed out many ground-dwelling birds, baring the more carnivorous bumblets, the large boomsingers which survive by reaching sizes far larger than any land-dwelling tribbethere, and the tentacle birds, which remain in some diversity. A distant memory are the great herds of ungulate-like serezelles and the scaly browsing mucks, is replaced now by the trampling of tripod pseudo-mammals. Of the present diversity, the soft-billed birds represent the vast majority of terrestrial bird megafauna upon the canary world, and of them, the trunkos represent the vast majority of them.

During the Early Ultimocene, there existed a species of terry known as the common neckbeard, part of a group of tentacled bird which had evolved a fleshy egg pouch on the underside of the neck which allowed them to carry their brood around, eliminating the need to construct and maintain stationary nests and keeping its unhatched young completely safe from egg-eating predators. This deer or antelope-like bird was a common sight during this warmer period, owing to the success of this crucial reproductive strategy, which proved to be a winning formula as the global climate change quickly and dramatically in a relatively short period. Not having to rely on nesting grounds, they could easily move with the changing seasons to avoid the shifting glaciers, while always able to exploit new food sources and environments as they moved into new regions. In this frigid new ice age, the adaptable, intelligent, and generalist neckbeards exploded in diversity over millions of years, conquering most of the northern supercontinent of Serinarcta as the trunkos by the Mid Ultimocene.

Although the tribbetheres still occupied most more specialized grazing niches and much of the predatory hierarchy, the trunkos were able to coexist alongside them through maintaining of their more generalist diet; no species is exclusively herbivorous or carnivorous, a factor which has allowed them to occupy every habitat from the glacial wastes of the north to the frigid interior desert, down to the equatorial temperate rainforests, and sometimes even along the coastal seas. It is not through extreme evolutionary innovations which has assured their success during such biotic upheaval but the simply the culmination of numerous mundane attributes together to produce a winning formula during the twilight epochs of Serina.

A number of notable species of this new and very successful clade are presented below.

Steppe Boomerbeard: A neckbeard species which is part of a subgroup that has adapted a polygamous breeding system. Males take no part in brooding of eggs and have adapted the brood sac into a display structure. During courtship, when the facial markings flush vibrantly, the males can grossly inflate this structure as part of an intensive ritualistic dance. Females are extremely picky about mates because they will spend the next two years with the male of their choice. The species forms large lekking arenas during the breeding season where males will via for the females via thundering calls and elaborate and specific displays which are closely examined by females. The most successful males may end up attracting two or three dozen females, and groups led by cooperative brothers can exceed sixty individuals. The steppe species roams the southeastern region of the northern continent, browsing the low-growing bushes, newer shoots, shrubbery, and some grasses for most of the year.

Males do not partake in brooding of eggs, but are fiercely protective of young chicks. Often twice the mass of the females, they will viciously attack potential threats; steppe boomerbeards are capable of standing nearly four metres tall and kicking with blade-like claws that can be over a foot long, few predators bother to take on the bull boomerbeard. A single strike can cleanly disembowel a launching circuagodog or mortally wound even the largest bumblebears. Females continue to judge their choice of male on how well he can care for his young over the course of the two years, which will factor into their choice of whether to remain with them through the next breeding cycle, or try for another male. Since a male inevitably has more trouble caring for a larger group, this helps in preventing one male from dominating the gene pool. Males born are generally kicked from the group or wander off on their own after the two years, while females may stick with their mothers for much longer.

Crimson Snoodswine: A very stockily built neckbeard species, standing only about three feet tall but weighing over sixty kilograms. This a more omnivorous species, consuming all manner of organic material, from fungi, tubers, low-growing vegetation, insects, small vertebrates, and carrion. A strong bite and thick beak allows them to grind and tear up tough food items, including bones and gristle or particularly fibrous vegetation. This is part of a group of very generalist neckbeards, with a broad but short trunk which is covered in long whiskers and fleshy protuberances that make it a highly effective sensory (and grabbing) organ. It roots through shrubbery and leaf litter for delectable morsels hidden in the ground, and is also prehensile enough to grab them and bring it to the mouth. Since its nostrils are not located on the trunk, it is able to identify edible food items almost instantaneously from touch alone.

Snoodswine tend for smaller social groups, usually just a pair and their offspring (if they have any), although this is not a strict rule. During times of plenty, they may form groups of several dozen, but split up during the winter to avoid competing for resources. Their wide diet makes them hardy animals, and they can root through several feet of snow in search of any remaining vegetation or burrowing animals hidden from sight. This digging through the soil helps to reveal buried vegetation that other animals can rely on through the winter. The crimson species ranges widely across most of the southern region of Serinarcta across a variety of biomes. Being rather short-legged, they defend themselves with their powerful beaks rather than with kicks as with neckbeards, although at close range, both are utilized. The beak is heavy-set and protrudes, making it a vicious biting weapon and all-foodstuffs mastication tool. Their thick plumage and surprisingly tough hides beneath them make them much harder to kill than most predators might assume.

Boglump: A large wetland-dwelling species, this is a grazer that primary wades through shallow water in search of rhizomes and tubers in the substrate or the occasional snail and crustacean. Their long tentacles can finely root through the mud to find these energy-rich food items by touch, while their eyes and nostrils remain at or near the water’s surface, allowing them to remain vigilant for predators and able to breathe even when foraging. Because their diet is rich in aquatic vegetation, they accumulate copper pigments from their food, giving them a distinctive greenish body colour and bright-red neck plumage despite the monofilament structure of their feathers otherwise allowing only for hues of brownish or greyish as seen in most other squidbird species. They are themselves part of a group of neckbeards (the common ancestor of which was likely forest-dwelling) which have evolved to utilize copper-based pigments to create green integument, rather than structural colouration.

A herd animal, dozens of the rotund avians can often be seen bobbing through murky water. Their feet are partially webbed to allow them to push themselves through the water with minimal energy, although if they can they prefer to merely kick themselves off of the bottom at intervals. They still remain capable walkers and runners on land, with the webbing extending partly up the toes. These are likely the most aquatically inclined of the neckbeard species, capable of submerging for up to five minutes at a time. Sometimes they may forage along the coast, bobbing into sea bamboo forests and seagrass meadows to feed on the marine vegetation, although they are not particularly inclined towards it. During brooding periods, the parents alternate holding of the egg between the day to allow both of them periods to feed underwater (since the egg cannot be submerged); males generally holding the egg during the day and females holding the egg at night. During brooding periods and winter seasons, they will subsist on terrestrial vegetation more often, although focusing on softer buds, shoots, and fruits whenever possible (while the periods leading up to egg-laying, females will consume a higher quantity of aquatic animals). Strong grinding beaks allow them to consume tough, fibrous plant matter or those with minimal nutrition. Full-grown boglumps can reach well over three-hundred kilograms and a herd of them creates substantial disturbances in the environment, necessitating a wide feeding range. Their ability to swim out to sea has led to some insular populations on islands off the southeastern coasts.

They remain able-bodied on land and it is not an uncommon sight for a herd of the bulky avians to be browsing low-growing vegetation or travelling far from bodies of water during periods of seasonal changes. Their bulk allows them to break through ice that may be a few inches thick, allowing them to forage underwater even during the winter. Boglumps range further north during the summer when the arctic ice recedes, revealing the huge wetland complexes spanning thousands of square kilometres hidden under the snow, migrating back near the equator during the winter where the temperatures are somewhat more tolerable. Herds may join together during migratory events, and strangers will intermingle to diffuse social cautiousness; with animals identifying one another by bellowing calls and their broad, brightly coloured facial discs.

Grisly Carnackle: Relatives of the snoodswine, this is a species which has specialized its facial tentacle into an offensive weapon. Large keratinous scales and thick, hooked spines grow from the trunk, which tapers into a longer, thinner point free of these. The half closer to the face is flailed in combat as a flail or mace-like weapon to cut and stab at rivals in ritualistic combat. Despite the awkward appearance of this specialized weapon, many older adult thrashers bear prominent scarring from many such fights, which will often leave both opponents battered and bloodied. The thick callused and armoured skin of the face generally protects from serious injury, but can’t prevent scarring from superficial gashing. The ends remain clear of large protuberances to allow the tentacle to still be used as a prehensile grasping and sensory organ, but this is curled tight during combat to avoid being damaged. Carnackles often rub their spiked trunks on trees, leaving distinct grooves and a pungent musk that marks their territory.

This is one of the most carnivorously inclined of the neckbeard species, often actively pursuing and hunting moderately-sized prey which it can dismember and consume with a powerful beak. Weighing up to one-hundred kilograms, this is a substantially sized predator and the largest of the carnackles. During this period in the natural history of the moon, it is in fact one of the largest land predators. Although not as fast as some more specialized pursuit predators, they have great endurance and can run down prey over an hour or more if necessary. The hooked spines along its trunk, although not particularly well-adapted as killing tools and incapable of actually being used for biting, despite their tooth-like appearance (since they lack a bony anchor), help act as claws to tear and grip struggling prey in tandem with its beak.

Its carnivorous tendencies are more pronounced during winter or other periods of vegetation loss, or females preparing to lay eggs. Similar to the less aggressive snoodswine, the majority of its diet (anywhere from two-thirds of three-fifths, depending on regional variation) is still various types of vegetation. Similar to the snoodswine, they are highly opportunistic and have a wide-ranging diet which differs regionally. A full-grown grisly carnackle has little to fear from other predators, although juveniles which have separated from their parents may occasionally fall victim to larger circuagodogs and grapplers. However, these carnivores must always catch the carnackle by surprise, because these neckbeards almost seem to relish the opportunity to thrash with a formidable foe and fight ferociously to their last breath.

Ziraphan: One of the largest living land animals of the Mid Ultimocene, and one of several high-browsing neckbeard species which have evolved, exceeded only in size (although quite considerably) by the boomsingers. This is probably the largest of them all, with a total height of just over eight metres in exceptionally tall adults, greater even than the largest giraffes. These are very lithely built animals, and despite their immense height, generally remain under two tons in weight. They retain the prehensile trunks, which add another two metres in height to their feeding range, and allowing to them feed in a wide radius around their beak without needing to move their extremely long necks (which make up more than half of their height). Their eggs are among the largest of any bird species, living or extinct, but extremely small in comparison to their body size, and newborn chicks are only about twenty-five pounds (and always born in pairs).

Although having very long legs, they are not very quick and when running they can easily break bones if they even stumble. So instead, their legs are covered in a thick layer of spiny scales for a rudimentary defence against predators that aim for their legs. One direct kick is enough to kill coexisting predators of any size, while even a glancing blow can leave serious wounds from the pointed scales covering the lower legs. They generally forage in monogamous pairs so each animal can watch the other while browsing the treetops, taking turns plunging their heads into foliage. The length of their neck also allows them to feed from a wide swathe along the mid to lower boughs of forest, or out in the prairies. The length of their feeding tentacle keeps their eye above the tips of tall grasses, preventing them from being blinded to predators even when dipping their head down. Brightly coloured heads and trunks allow the animals to easily spot and identify each other from great distances, as their height also allows them to clearly survey their surroundings for a very large radius.

Ziraphan chicks remain with their parents for three to four years, but they breed every year. Older siblings will assist their parents in caring for their younger siblings, in the process gain essential parenting skills for when they eventually separate and have chicks of their own. Even a juvenile ziraphan just half the height of a full-grown animal can be a fearsome opponent for the largest predators. Like a marsupial, ziraphans will carry newly hatched chicks in their brood pouches for a few months to help protect them from predators, until they become too heavy for them to carry. Unlike most other neckbeards, the pouch is located near the base of the neck rather than the under the head due to the length of the neck and weight of the egg.

Snow Snoot: A smaller, tundra and taiga-dwelling neckbeard species (reaching about twenty to twenty-five kilograms) found along the northwestern rim of the northern continent, often congregating in great numbers for protection against the cold. This is by far the largest of the snoot species, with an increase in size due to their extreme arctic environment. They rely on a thick layer of fat as well as a multi-layered insulating feather coat several centimetres deep, allowing them to survive exposure to temperature that may drop to forty centigrade below. A broader outer layer creates a cushion of air over the two, denser inner layers of softer down, retaining body heat exceptionally well. A large mane or ruff of feathers around its neck allows the snoots to tuck their more exposed heads (which are only covered in a thinner layer of velvety feathers) against the most bitter winds during the winter. When living in pairs, they will burrow deep into the snow to shelter from the cold, but living in groups, they will huddle together in tight congregations like penguins to retain heat. Their superb adaptations against the frigid cold has made them among the most common ground bird of the northern tundra.

Their digging ability is also invaluable during the winter, as it allows them to search for food beneath the thick snowfall. A layer of broad feathers covering their toes act as snowshoes to prevent them naturally sinking through. They feed continuously during the the summer to build up fat, but lacking the ability to truly hibernate, they keep foraging through the harsh winter. Although otherwise entirely herbivorous, they will take to eating some meat during the winter, hunting small burrowing animals they may find under the snow or scavenging the frozen carcasses of animals that did not survive the arctic cold. They often follow the movement of larger grazers and browsers during the summer, which offer some protection from predators and may leave behind exposed vegetation for them to pick over. They may even shift through dung for undigested seeds or eat insects attracted to the piles. During the summer, smaller groups may congregate into much larger herds that can be over a hundred in number. Their pure white coats (illustrated transitioning from a mottled brown summer coat, a molt that occurs annually and is triggered by changing day length) make them nearly invisible against the snow (particularly when their dark heads are hidden beneath their ruff), but they can break out in a surprising burst of speed to escape arctic predators if necessary.

Plump Sniffler: Part of a group of forest-dwelling neckbeards endemic to the near-equatorial regions of Serina, these are among the smallest of the group, sometimes only getting around one or two kilograms in weight (this species being slightly larger than the average, at around three kilograms and forty centimetres in height), although ironically are closely related to the high-browsing species that are among the largest of the neckbeards. These are a more strictly territorial species, with pairs or small family groups establishing a specific range within which they forage each day in a memorized pattern. Neckbeards by default are intelligent animals and the snifflers are no different; they gradually modify and maintain their habitat in order to maximize foraging efficiency and preparing escape routes when chased by predators, as well as memorizing the specific changes that occur as the seasons change.

Snifflers are the most carnivorously inclined of the neckbeards, being primarily insectivorous (along with small vertebrates, small fruits and seeds, and some vegetation), although with a substantial amount of fruit (from which their green feather pigment originates). A rodent-like twitchy tic belays an agile and highly alert forager quick enough to pluck flying arthropods straight out of the air. The plump sniffler is a more social species, sometimes living in groups of up to five or six (usually related) adults and their offspring, although they tend to be widely dispersed during the night when they forage, only returning to a communal den during the day.

Their greenish-brown plumage is excellent camouflage in the forest undergrowth, even from each other, so they use sound to signal to one another from far away. They maintain contact during the night using periodic whistling calls, which their sensitive hearing can pick up over great distances. These calls can communicate a predator sighting, location of a food source worth sharing, an unexpected change to their territory, or just to signal their presence. Care of offspring is also communal in this species, and all adults will help with care of young, teaching them the best routes and finding specific insects and fruits which are available at certain times of the year. Plump snifflers have a long lifespan for such a small animal, capable of surviving up to thirty years (although most perish by their second, if they survive that threshold, they usually have a long life ahead of them).

Desert Wump: Specialized for life in the harsh desert interior, the desert wumps show many physical and behavioural adaptations for existence on an arid, barren wasteland. Its stumpy tail can swell greatly in size with adipose tissues to help tough out weeks without food or water, its dense layers of downy feathers protects against the bitter chill that envelops the land for most of the year, and its uric excretions are nearly solid clumps to resist against water loss. The wumps can eat ice and snow, or derive moisture from tough, desert-dwelling vegetation in the absence of liquid water. Even the most bitter-tasting, fibrous, inedible plant matter that may be dried husks can be eaten by the desert wump, whose sensitive nose can pick up the faint scent of vegetation from miles away or detect hidden root systems metres beneath the sand. They spend their entire lives nomadically, constantly on the search for more greenery with the ebb and flow of the temperate summers and bone-chilling winters. They are great endurance runners, jogging tirelessly for hours on end if they detect the smell of water (and making them difficult quarries for even the most experienced ambush hunters).

The wumps are able to use their intelligence to eke out a living in the inhospitable cold desert, digging pits near underground reservoirs to allow water to pool in them, stripping away the less nutritious cuticles of desert plants to carve out the richer, fluid-filled tissues within, and memorizing the locations of rare waterholes and oases that may be hundreds of kilometres apart. The wumps have been known to locate the burrows of dune-dwelling poppits to consume their stores of seeds and roots (and sometimes the molodonts themselves). Those which dwell along the fringes of the cactaiga brambles often follow behind the movements of the thorngrazers to scavenge partly eaten cactaiga branches and exposed roots left over from their destructive feeding.

Desert wumps travel only in pairs, although sometimes groups may incidentally congregate in patches of relatively dense vegetation or around watering holes (giving individuals which may not have seen one another in years a chance to socialize). Populations living within the cactaiga biome tend to be more social than the dune-dwelling populations due to marginally greater abundance of resources. Wumps are a lineage of neckbeards (among numerous bird lineages throughout history) which have evolved crop milk to help raise their young in a resource sparse environment (all neckbeards utilize regurgitative feeding of chicks and evolution of crop milk was therefore not difficult to redevelop). This is slowly transitioned into a solid matter diet over a period of several weeks (during this period the parents do not feed, relying solely on their fat stores). Adults (which can reach over two-hundred kilograms in weight) are primarily herbivorous, but like many neckbeards will occasionally consume animal matter (such as insects and carrion) if the opportunity arises.

Euphoric Boomerbeard: A forest-dwelling neckbeard species found primarily throughout the southwest region of the northern continent, from the temperate woodland down to the equatorial forests. This is a predominantly fruit, nut, and seed-eating species, consuming a wide variety, from small berries, to large nuts (the boomerbeard is able to use rocks to crack the hard shells of such nuts it cannot swallow whole). They gorge themselves on fruits and seeds during the blooming seasons, eating hundreds of berries each day; often they may accidentally (or even intentionally) consume quantities of fermenting fruits that gets them somewhat wobbly, but they seem to enjoy the effects overall. In any case, the boomerbeards clearly make the best out of the relatively short window where high-energy foods are widely available.

Populations that live in more northern forest regions will change their foraging behaviour during the fall; they begin gathering seeds and nuts in their crops, and then when bloated, they disgorge their payloads into pits, burying the piles of seeds in caches in preparation for the winter. These caches are an important part of the forest ecology, as uneaten seeds end up incidentally planted, while some kleptoparasites often find some of the caches, unearthing them and using them as food sources as well. To try and prevent other animals from discovering the caches, the boomerbeards do not use any notable signals to mark their locations, relying on their memory alone to keep track of the numerous caches over a period of months. Populations closer to the equator where the effects of the seasons are much less noticeable and the climate remains steady year-round still cache food, but less regularly, as their motivation relies simply on the irregular nature of yearly fruiting plants and their stores act as insurance that younger and less experienced animals can rely on.

Undigested seeds from fruit pass through and are distributed through their range via their droppings, seeding the lands for the next year. Their feeding and caching habits therefore provide an immeasurable service to the dwindling forest habitat in the ice age. Heavy consumption of fruits allows the males to develop extremely vibrant display colours during the summer from the pigments in their food, although both sexes are well patterned. They are not exclusively specialized towards a frugivorous diet however, and will also subsist on fungi, shoots, insects, and new buds during the spring and may consume tree bark or tubers during the winter. The species breeds during the winter, so that the chicks will hatch during the beginning of spring and be able to build up as much weight as possible before the next year. This is a moderately-sized boomerbeard species, with adult males reaching roughly seventy kilograms in weight, while females rarely exceed fifty kilograms.

Mammoth Trunko: One of the largest of the neckbeard species are these arctic-dwelling nomads which are well-adapted for the harsh life of the ice age. Weighing over a ton as an adult (and sometimes approaching fifteen-hundred kilograms), these are among the most successful and most widespread terrestrial megafauna during the Mid Ultimocene, being present across almost the entirety of the northern continent. Herds of these huge avians, sometimes dozens strong, trundle across the continent in their endless search for vegetation; protected in their close-knit groups and by their sheer bulk, the adults are have little to fear from any predators. The key to their success is largely due to their intelligence - even among neckbeards these are highly intellectual animals with a very sophisticated social structure. Groups consist of close family members; males generally remain with their parents their whole lives while females disperse at sexual maturity to join another group in order to prevent inbreeding.

The oldest animals tend to have most say by default; due to their longevity and good memory they tend to have the greatest knowledge from experience, but nonetheless the mammoth trunkos utilize a largely democratic decision-making process. Trunkos have rudimentary language consisting of trunk gestures and deep grumbles and bellows and the animals communicate continuously to maintain their social bonds, even if a simple snort to signal their presence to another while foraging. Closely related to the wump, they are able to produce crop milk to feed their young through the winter months when food is otherwise scarce. Mortality is low and the species is very long-lived, on occasion exceeding seventy or eighty years, but parental care lasts multiple years and they breed seldom as a result. Adults will defend their young with powerful kicks and spike-like claws that can be nearly forty centimetres in length. Because they are so closely knit and can reliably rear young to maturity, the species has a noticeably wide variety of occurring colour variations, including those which would otherwise be unlikely to survive to adulthood. It is not uncommon to see an albino or piebald individual intermingling amongst a group of brownish or greyish animals.

The species, due to their instinctively social behaviour and nomadic foraging habits, and having little fear of predators, are normally a very peaceful herbivore (it may occasionally scavenge or dig out small animals for certain nutrients, but this usually makes up only a small portion of their diet). Herds regularly intermingle in common feeding grounds and offspring which have matured and separated from their parents may reconnect years later; even separated for so long, a trunko never forgets the face of a member of its family. They are closely related to the more solitary desert wump and the two species seem to have a recognition in this fact (likely due to many familiar visual cues in behaviour); in areas where they coexist the two are often found in association with one another, with a pair of wumps trailing behind a trunko herd or some adolescents which only recently left their parents.

Spiny Sniffler: One of the smallest of the snifflers, and among the smallest of the neckbeards as a whole, barely reaching one kilogram in weight. This species is easily identifiable by the hardened coat of bristly feather quills that cover its back and rump which act as a painful defense against predators in the same manner as the pointed hairs of hedgehogs or porcupines. This is one of the few sniffler species which digs its own burrows rather than relying upon the abandoned dens and dugouts of other digging animals. The spiny sniffler will dig numerous burrows through its territory and memorize their locations in the event of a predator, rush in headfirst, and stick only their pointy rump out (this is generally effective except against predatory bumblets, which are able to dig out the snifflers and often tough enough to barrel through the spines regardless). Some snifflers may anoint their spines with the oils of certain poisonous plants or insects to strengthen their effect.

Because of their digging ability, they are able to find food items through the soil during the winter, scraping beneath the snow and leaf litter for hibernating insects, small rodent-like molodonts like poppits, and frog-like tribbets, which they can find through acute hearing and are easy prey in their slumber. This is the most northern-dwelling sniffler species, capable of toughing out the harsh snowy months. Despite their small size they are proportionately among the most ferocious neckbeards, taking on prey that may be nearly as large as themselves. Their diet is more omnivorous in the summer months when fruit, seeds, mushrooms, and fresh buds are plentiful, but by inevitably of the winter they will consume whatever they can find in the cold since they don’t hibernate. Among other animal matter consumed may be carrion, bird eggs, and the occasional fish and freshwater crustacean. They may use small sticks or quills plucked from their own bodies to fish for worms in the soil or grubs and ants underneath wood. A hooked beak buried beneath their soft facial tissues makes a versatile tool for tearing through beak or husking seeds and nut.

Because of their egg pouches, adults have little need to keep a permanent burrow for most of the year and regularly cycle through the burrows through their territory to decrease the chances a predator will find their home (although they may occasionally return to some of their burrows to find another animal has moved in as a result). They’ll settle down for a few days when the chicks are hatching as the young grow strong enough to travel regularly. The quills of the hatchlings generally stiffen within an hour or two of birth and soon become just as prickly as their parents. As with other snifflers, the parents feed young chicks by regurgitation for the first few months before gradually transitioning to solid foods (as opposed to most herbivorous neckbeards which generally feed themselves from birth or utilize crop milk).

Thundering Boomerbeard: Another wetland-dwelling species of neckbeard, although from an entirely different lineage than the aforementioned boglump. These are waders at best, without exceptional swimming abilities or webbed feet. Their preference for habitat stems primarily from their dietary preference for plant species which themselves prefer moister habitats, with a tolerance for low-nutrient mosses, evergreens, and saline-resistant vegetation. They also have a taste for crustaceans, and will sift through the watery silt for bottom-dwelling crabs and crayfish, which are consumed whole. The carotene in their shells helps the males develop vibrant crimson skin during the courting season (because of the simplistic, down-like structure of their plumage, their feathers do not change colour as it does with some crustacean-eating birds like flamingos).

This species takes the display structures of the boomerbeards to an extreme, with not only an inflatable gular sac but secondary sacs behind the nostrils which can also be blown up. These nasal chambers within the skull act to help resonate their calls to an absurd degree, with a male at full volume can be heard for miles. At full display, the thundering boomerbeard is an obnoxiously loud and colourful beast akin to a singing, dancing jester that females somehow find attractive the louder and more garishly patterned they are. The call of the thundering boomerbeard is loud enough that they may scream in the face of predators to momentarily stun them with volume (or just scare them off with a sudden piercing bellow at close range). Females too are quite piercing if needed, although not to such a degree, lacking the display structures of the males, and more often just flee when threatened.

These tend to live in smaller groups than most boomerbeards, with males rarely having a harem of more than three or four females at a time, although congregations of herds in periodic close association and mixed herding with coexisting herbivorous circuagodonts are a regular sight in common feeding grounds, particularly when certain types of edible flowers and berry-like fruits are in bloom. Their powerful calls allow groups to communicate over great distances easily, allowing continued socialization even out of sight. Their diet is more mixed during the summer but they subsist almost entirely on evergreens during the winter, but may occasionally fish for aquatic animals and rhizomes with their trunks in places where the water’s surface hasn’t completely frozen over. Their lack of specialization towards this nutrient-poor food supply is counterbalanced by their continuous feeding through the winter.

Diabolic Snoodswine: With the gradual spread of the ice caps, countless organisms have stepped up to the challenge of this harsh and geologically sudden climactic shift. The diabolic snoodswine is one of the most exceptionally hardy avian grazers of the eastern steppe (up into the lower tundra regions and certain cactaiga regions where thorngrazers have mowed through to create game trails). Unlike the nomadic mammoth trunkos and migratory boombeards which retreat to warmer climes during the harsh winters, the snoodswine toughs out the encroaching snow though the year. A thick layer of insulating fat and shaggy feather integument several inches thick are necessary adaptations for sitting through weather which can drop to -40^oC for days on end. A broad, muscular trunk allows them to shovel through snow, which can be several feet deep, to the grass still underneath, and so they continue to feed year round, even through the dead of the ice age winter when most life has fled the steppe. Several species of antlears and smaller neckbeards that coexist with these grazers which also don’t migrate rely almost entirely on the snoodswine to clear out the snow for them to survive the winter.

This is one of the largest of the snoodswine species, weighing up to half a ton as an adult and nearly six feet high at the shoulder. Full-grown individuals are also armed with a part of ornate horns that jut from the front of the skull, which are purely defensive; unsurprisingly, only the largest and most desperate bumblebears are any threat to them. A herd of them in a protective circle with their heads lowered is a nearly impenetrable spiky wall of hairy flesh and blubber. During courtship, males may stage mock fights to try and impress females, but almost never does this escalate to physical injuries. Yearling chicks suffer the greatest mortality, as more than half perish through their first winter, either from the unbearable chill or the snow-stalking predators that are able to separate an infant from its parents. For the best chance of survival, chicks must put on as much weight as they can during the summer, but if manage to survive their first year their chances of survival to adulthood go up considerably.

Herds of mixed sexes establish a home range during the summer where they graze, defending it against other herds, although generally they respect one others’ territorial limits, mostly due to the uniformity of the steppe habitat, and it’s not particularly uncommon to see two or three herds feeding within sight of each other. During the winter, they become more social out of survival necessity; groups which normally don’t exceed two to three dozen adults may now clump together and swell to well over a hundred. This allows them to better conserve heat by huddling together in close contact and makes it easier to defend their young against the numerous predators which may circle their groups for weeks on end looking for an opening.

Ripper Carnackle: A rather specialized species of carnackle, with relatively short, flattened spines and a heavily scaled face. This is a primarily insectivorous and forest-dwelling species which consumes large quantities of bark-dwelling ants; they use their facial scutes to scrape away the outer bark to get at the inner chambers, focusing on the larvae nurseries, with their thick scales protecting their heads against the assault of the biting, stinging ants. A long, brush-like tongue works fast, lashing up large numbers of ants quickly before the colony can mount a defence, and then the bird moves on to the next feeding location. Beetle grubs and woodlice are other favourites which they’ll readily consume if they are encountered in their foraging. Those that coexist with the treeskinner may follow behind the large molodonts as they scrape away the bark to reveal insect prey, or rely strongly on them to create new feeding grounds, as the dying trees naturally become infested with arthropods.

The majority of their diet is made out of insects, but they are not exclusively insectivorous and will readily consume fruits, small vertebrates, carrion, and some plant matter. Depending on seasonal availability they alternate between a fruit-heavy and insect-heavy diet, with their diet becoming more varied and opportunistic during the winter when food becomes more scarce, or when raising chicks. Individuals living near the coastal equator where winters are tend to mild are less opportunistic due to a reasonably reliable food supply of ants even in the coldest months. These are the most solitary of the neckbeard species; although monogamous, they forage singly for most of the year, usually coming together only to breed and raise young, which occurs biannually. Despite their relatively moderate size of around fifty to sixty kilograms, their natural ferocity and robust build make them fearsome animals, particularly in defence of their young. They are able to sequester the formic toxins from the ants they consume and accumulate the compounds in pin-like feathers along their back, making themselves toxic to any would-be predators.

However, despite their behavioural tenacity and physical resilience, the ripper carnackle is a dwindling species in this current period of climactic upheaval. It relies strongly on trees, and to a lesser extent, ants, as its primary means of sustenance. Tree-dwelling ants have gone into steep decline by the Mid Ultimocene, replaced only by more aggressive swarming ants that make poor prey, and as the ice moves downward a little more each winter, the forest habitats which they primarily forage shrink more every year. It has survived so far by specialization to a niche other carnackles do not take, but this same specialization is now killing them off. Naturally territorial, their population was never particularly numerous, and now a catastrophe is tipping the balance upon which they thrived; this is a story playing out countlessly among hundreds of species during the ice age, as ecosystems have begun to collapse on a global scale, not matched since the end of the Thermocene.