The last "penguin"

For an external viewer, a flightless, slow-moving bird like a bellydrugger would be seen as very weak and incapable of coping with the rapid climatic changes that have occurred in Antarctica. This perception, apparently, is far from correct. Like many other species, their numbers declined to only one species after the Continental Crisis, but this survivor is far from being critically threatened. This relictual semiaquatic species, called the muddy bellydrugger (Relictoryctes marroleuca), is widely distributed in the rivers and wetlands of the continent, except in insular environments.

The unnoticed toughness of this bird can be found in its elusive lifestyle and anatomical pre-adaptations to cold environments. Their semifossorial habit makes this species capable of escaping predators, and despite their apparent harmless appearance, they possess subcutaneous osteoderms and short, robust feathers. These features are useful both for reducing skin scraping in their tunnels but also as strong armor to defend against predators. Their ability to raise their eggs inside a pouch located between their legs and belly was also an important pre-adaptation to protect their young from the ever-cooling temperatures of the Biancocene epoch. In a nutshell, bellydruggers are incredibly resilient animals that are far from easy to eradicate, even for climate itself.
Like their ancestors, muddy bellydruggers can move in a sprawling position when digging, but when foraging outside on the ground, they move bipedally like a penguin, often using jumping as a primary locomotion. Tunnels are rarely used for searching for food since they are a species adapted to forage on the ground. They are omnivores, feeding on a large variety of foods, from aquatic insects to leaves and berries, depending on seasonal availability. When food becomes scarce at the end of autumn, muddy bellydruggers can hibernate for even five months, decreasing their metabolic rate by 80%. Their metabolism is relatively slow even in favorable conditions, with a body temperature maintained even ten degrees lower than average when resting to reduce energy loss. This is why, compared to other birds and mammals of similar size, the muddy bellydrugger can survive with less than half of the expected food requirement.
Muddy bellydruggers chicks are born semi-precocial, with open eyes and capable of walking just a week after hatch; their colouration is similar to adult except for the head, which is completely white. Since muddy bellydruggers eggs hatch in late spring, when snow cover is still partially present, a both brown and white camouflage is perfect to hide from predators in the snowy and muddy environment where they dwell.

Despite all these adaptations, however, the future of this bird is as uncertain as that of other species. When the permafrost will begin to freeze even the upper layers of soil on the Follia Plateau due to the gradual cooling trend, muddy bellydruggers will lose about 80% of their range, condemning this species to certain death. Still, the time has not yet come for this chubby, flightless bird, for now.