The zone around the landing site is uneven with valleys where rivers cut down from the mountains in search of the sea. Due to these mountains receiving a lot of rain there are a lot of these rivers and valleys, resulting in many species that have at least some ability to climb or swim. Although the zone is mostly by savannah habitat, with digitgrass and warm-temperate descendants of crops like Maize and Wheat that feed Digit Sparrows (Domesticus digitus), West Catlandian Bush Mice (Musculus flexibilis), and Scraping Mice (Maxillextenta), it's more complicated than a simple flat grassland or floodplain. Because of this small strips of forest made up of date palms, tree-like elderberry and mulberry, or rocky outcrops and dry plateaus may be present depending on the positions of the rivers.

In the savannahs around what used to be the ship, Jumping Cats (Catus desultor) prowl through the meadows and shrubs spaced apart in territories, their ears sometimes being the only sign of them peaking above the long grass. These cats are long-legged and slender for fast running and jumping after prey, through and over the long grass. They have yellow-orange fur with black spots to break up their shape as they move between the contrasting light and shade of the grass foliage. Their sattelite-dish ears are inherited from the "savannah cat", a hybridisation of the wild serval (Leptailurus serval) and the domestic cat (Felis catus) popular back in the early 2000s on Earth. These ears allow them to listen with pin-point accuracy for prey through the walls of grass that obscure them visually. Over 100,000 years prior, some of the last known savannah cats in surviving human collection had made it into Max's ship (from one of his many travels and encounters post-societal collapse), which is how these cats are able to express such a strong similarity to the savannah cat. Now, the jumping cat only carries a very small amount of the ancestral serval genes, some of their resemblance at 100,000 years in the future from now is convergence from evolving in a similar habitat, savannah plains that include digitgrasses, except with the absence of any larger predators to watch and listen out for. Jumping cats can intercept prey in the air, calculating where their prey will be before they make their leap after the target. They can also catch prey through stealth and ambush before they flee, creeping closer silently from behind clumps of grass and pouncing on them before the prey know the cat is there.

The Grassy Rabbits (Cuniculus herbidus) here have adopted a more hare-like form as young adults, with longer legs and ears not only to run faster and hear better respectively, but longer slimmer extremities also give them a greater surface area for heat radiation. They have short brown fur and a small tuft of slightly longer white fur on the underneath of their tail which is often clearly visible, similar to cottontail rabbits. They live in small family groups alternating the role of scouting for predators. They stand on their hind legs and stretch their bodies to look over tall grass for just a second before hiding again, relying on their acute hearing when they aren't actively looking around, such as when they graze on young fresh grass shoots, herbaceous catnip descendants and fruit in season. The rabbits don't stop growing once they start producing litters. When the rabbits get older they take on a different form, bulkier and closer resembling the ancestral rabbit but scaled up about ten times in volume. While they aren't as agile as the more mid-age rabbits, old rabbits are too big for cats to mess with. Cats are already wary of being crippled by any rabbit's incisors, and an older rabbit can certainly kill a cat out of spite with more than just it's teeth. Few rabbits reach old age, but if they do they greatly decrease the chances of their offspring and grand-offspring (or any other rabbits they graze near) from being attacked by cats. This increases the unusual growth trait's chance of surviving in the gene pool, and increases the value of elders past reproductive ability.

Neighbouring cat species such as West Catlandian Mountain Cat (Catus montanis) or Beach Cats (Catus rugosus) have ranges that overlap the landing site and the jumping cat's range. However there is another competitor of the jumping cat that is not another cat but rather the Berserker Lizard (Vivipara iratus). This is an exceptionally large descendant of the viviparous lizard, heavy and muscular and nearly a metre in length at maximum, their bite, hold and thrash technique causes crippling damage to the frailer mammals and a cat can't afford that kind of injury due to the need to hunt. Sometimes a cat would rather give up it's meal than butt heads with a full grown berserker lizard. Berserker lizards, although usually scavengers, also hunt live prey like young rabbits, mice, young cats, birds, small river trout, crayfish and smaller species of lizard they share their range with. Although shy when young (occupying a lower trophic level until they reach close to full size), when fully grown they have a profoundly aggressive blind-rage response to threats, hence the name. It also reinforces the selection for bigger, tougher members of their species, because lizards without clout but who still try to throw it quickly get killed. Like most animals in this zone, they are good swimmers.

Most lizards stayed much smaller, such as the tiny but hardy Central Catland Micro Lizard (Vivipara micro), a tiny, fast-breeding insectivore suited for desert living as well as dwelling in grasslands, often seen scurrying across sand or dusty soil between shadows cast by tufts of grass such as desert needlegras. Another is the Bee-Eating Lizard (Vivipara praedo), a long-toed tree climber with a more generalised diet ranging from invertebrates to honey and beeswax (as well as the bees and larvae). They have some minor immunity to the bee stings and their dome-shaped scales help some sting attempts glance off to the side instead of going through. However they can still be overwhelmed by bees such as the Tropical Silver Bee (Mellifera canus) , so never get a chance to consume too much honey or bee larvae at once. The bees have been nesting increasingly further from the reach of the lizards, resulting in the lizards growing stronger spine, legs, more developed shoulders and pelvis, and longer limbs to hold on and climb through the very variable environment of a tree canopy. Their bodies are also longer, giving them better anchorage because if they have to reach away from a branch they're on to reach something they want, much of their body weight is still on the branch keeping them from falling off.