Bunyips: Folklore Made Real

Bunyips (genus Bunyip) are a genus of semiaquatic marsupials that live in the fresh water bodies of Australia and New Guinea.  Bunyips are the descendants of Fat-tailed Dunnarts that migrated to the more coastal and riverine areas of Australia in search of food after the holocene extinction. They get their name from the creature known as the Bunyip from Aboriginal Australian folklore that was intensely feared by every tribe across Australia.

Biology

Bunyips measure in at about 3 feet in length and 8 inches at the shoulder.  They have a light brown colored coat.

Since Bunyips are semiaquatic, they have thick, watertight fur, webbed paws, and the ability to spend a long time underwater.  It has long whiskers for sensing prey in murky water.  Despite their eyesight not doing a lot of good in the water, their unique trichromat vision is integral for spotting food and predators while on land.  Their hearing is sharp even though they don't have much of an outer ear left.

Bunyips have a diet consisting of mostly aquatic invertebrates such as crayfish and worms but they'll also eat insects, fish, and on occasion, much larger animals.  Their metabolism is high and they are very athletic swimmers, like their ancestors they store fat in their tails as to not waste energy while swimming.

In order to save even more energy, Bunyips go into a daily torpor for about a third of the day. They'll often bask on a rock on the shore during the day to keep themselves warm during torpor so that they don't have to wait as long to rewarm.  Females are still able to lactate while in torpor.

Female Bunyips swim while their joeys are in the pouch, their pouches are sealable much like the Water Opossum's are in order to protect the joey.  Females lay on their backs while hunting to let their young breathe before shutting the pouch and going back under.  Joey's rarely suffocate in the pouch and deaths are usually caused by predators.  In order to counteract this, Bunyips have a high reproductive rate and mating season is year-round.  Gestation takes about 9 days and the young leave the pouch at about 6 weeks old.  Litters usually consist of 7 young and they'll go on to live for the next 8 years.

Behavior

Bunyips are social creatures and their intelligence is far greater than other marsupials.  A mob of Bunyips, usually consisting of about 20-30 live in community burrows usually taken from other animals and dug out further.  Half of the Bunyips will stay behind at the burrow while the other half go out and hunt.  One will stay outside the burrow and keep watch, if it sees danger it will call the hunters back to the shore with high pitched squeaking.  After a few hours the exhausted hunters will go into torpor while the others go to hunt and the guard switches.  This happens all day as Bunyips are active 24-7.

If their usual food is scarce, which is very rare, Bunyips will attack a large animal as a group and overwhelm it with their numbers. In the event that their hunting is interrupted by the prescence of a large aquatic predator like a crocodile, the Bunyips will lure it towards the shore and ambush it where it's at its most vulnerable. If they succeed, their kill will be compensation for lost hunting time.

Bunyips are dedicated parents, young Bunyips learn how to hunt and guard the burrow from their mothers.