Mammaloids: Bush Rat
Zoology
by Wordmate
© 07/01/06
(Unrestricted Club Use)
Bush Rat by Andrée Gendron
"I was intrigued by Andrée's poem, Jagged Wings Fly. I felt the idea of the bush rat was a little too earthy. I believe it needed to be "qualified" in some way, so here's a description of the bush rat so that readers will understand that it's not like some rat you'd find on planet Earth.
I don't have the technology to send images in the required format. Perhaps another member might draw his/her idea of a bush rat?"
Translucent, with an opalescent sheen, bush rats live in the thick undergrowth of the forests of Jade. Diurnal, they feed on seeds and berries, sleeping in skillfully woven nests of leaves at night.
They reproduce parthogenetically, laying small white eggs in clusters of three or four. The young hatch after about three danas, after which they grow rapidly, reaching maturity within two danas.
They use their twin tails for balance, and also as sensors to warn them of the approach of predators. Their eyes are vestigial and their vision extremely poor, but their hearing is acute.
It was thougt at one time they had been hunted to extinction by the many and varied preditory animals of Jade. But scientists now believe they evolved over a period of many thousands of danas from the large-eyed, furry nocturnal creatures of the Old Ones' era into the naked-skinned, highly developed animals they are today. They are able to reduce at will their metabolic rate to the point where they can thrive on just a few seeds each day.
There is archaeological evidence that they were once domesticated by the Old Ones, but whether as pets or for a ready food supply is unclear.
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