Furred Squid Part 2

Furred Squid (Pilosateuthida) can be grouped into three clades: the alpine Squikas and two clades of forest dwellers.

One clade the Splendor Squids is nearly fully herbivorous having taken the niche of Squibbions and their relatives as large arboreal herbivores.

The Flame-Faced Splendor Squid is the largest of the Furred Squid at 80-100 pounds.

Feeding on softer leaves and berries in the coastal lowlands they live in loose social groups of up to 50 that split apart when foraging.

Males are the ones to disperse in groups and are adorned with bright red faces and arms to attract mates.

Despite being competent climbers, foraging is done on the ground at night when Kraken Cats and forest Foxskins are less active.

They go up trees faster than most climbing predators and are too large for raptorial Ichthyopterans to tackle as adults, so they are safe from predators as long as they're not caught too far away from a tree.

Days are spent sleeping in high perches and leaving others to forge in the daylight.

One of these daylight foragers is the related Dazzling Splendor Squid, so named for its dazzling chromatophores along the throat and stomach that glow a dazzling array of pinks and blues in the morning light.

At only 60 pounds compared to the Flame Face, they are much more lackadaisical. Their limbs have adapted to hang upside down from large branches and feed on large stone fruits like plants and nuts.

Also unlike the Flame Faces, they are completely solitary though not territorial. Being suspensory feeders means they have to keep to lower branches but also spend much less time on the ground so they face much less predation outside of the occasional determined Neck Snare.

In both species, vocalization is quite similar, their larger sizes gives them a greater area in the nasal cavity for skin folds that amplify their calls resulting in a series of melodic bellows that sound like a sped-up didgeridoo.

On the other clade, the clade including the Sqarachute and Sing Song are much smaller.

Night Dancers are small indeed. A large clade all members are about the size of a shrew and are similarly flighty animals that scamper in the leaf litter for insects during the night like the related Sqarachute.

Like the shrews, they resemble their extremely territorial animals as they need to eat a large amount of insects for their body size and don’t tolerate the presence of their own kind outside of mating.

This is where the name comes from as their threat displays to each other involve raising the glowing hairs on their body and rapidly jumping from side to side, producing shrill dolphin-like chirps and whistles.

This can create a rather amusing spectacle as two tiny squids small enough to fit in a human hand bounce about and chirp at each other, the light from their chromatophores making them look like two blurry blips in leaf litter at night.

A bigger Furred Squid (although that's not saying much) is the Howler Squid a larger relative of the Sing Song the size of a large squirrel.

Of all Furred Squid, they are the most geared towards vocalization. The robust network of ridges in their sinuses becomes ossified, creating a reverberating chamber for sound to be amplified.

For such small animals, their air-siren-sounding calls can be heard up to a mile away.

Both sexes have these structures but it is more pronounced in males.

These calls are the most common at dawn or dusk as a way of announcing territory since they are solitary unlike the Sing Song and range quite extensively throughout forested areas running upright on two legs in a somewhat human or gibbon-like fashion.