Necromuncher
The Necromuncher is a very strange creature. It is the planets main scavenger and will feast on any dead flesh it can find. It has no predators as an adult, but as a baby it is vulnerable to attacks by Lizard-Foxes and other land and shoreline predators. The Necromuncher’s territory is all over the island and the shallower water. It combs the areas constantly for dead bodies, eating as it goes. They eat practically nonstop, and they also defecate constantly. They process their food rather swiftly and turn it into fertilizers for the planet’s plants. The soil is very rich in part to the dung of the Necromuncher.
The Necromuncher stands at about 130 centimeters high and is balanced delicately on two slender legs. Its tail helps with balance, but it is a very unstable creature. It tends to bounce around and skip rather than run or walk, making a noise that sounds remarkably like a child giggling. They look quite heavy, but they surprisingly are only 40 kilograms. Their skeleton is very light and their swift digestive process allows them to maintain a decent weight to keep the gravity from pulling their body down over their legs.
The Necromuncher rests in cat-naps and is active both during night and day. It poses no danger to living creatures, but they often stumble across angry Fizzos. This is the most common death of a Necromuncher. The Fizzo often bites off the skinny leg, without two functioning legs the Necromuncher cannot move. They are eaten by their own kind after they die.
The Necromunchers live in loosely knit social groups that tighten during breeding season. The broods of four or five have to stay in a nest for the first twenty Allerian days of their lives. The Necromunchers guard their young in shifts until the babies can walk. After they can walk they stay with their mother until they are about one fifth of an Allerian year in age. Their lifespan is about seven years. Females are a little bit larger than males for the purpose of child-bearing. They do not stay together as a pair after mating, but rather work with the entire community, with the mother as the main caretaker. The Necromuncher child-rearing is best described as taking the whole village to raise the child. The creatures regularly change around groups to prevent inbreeding.
