Mountain Tantari Herds Return to Eiglophian Range 04/26/3133
INN - Interstellar News Network
ATHALAU--The annual return of the tantari, a smaller, hardier cousin species to the
six-legged eiglotherium of the western plains on Hyboria, began today as forestry
rangers in the Central Eiglophian Mountain Reserve sighted a dozen of the creatures
foraging for food along the mountain base. The return of the lithe hexapods to the
area marks the completion of an annual migratory cycle from the northern ranges:
Tantari follow several resident bird species and the growth cycles of mountain berry
trees that are their only sources of food.
Tantari, likened in many ways to Terran mountain lions, are known for their amazing
agility and extremely limited food preference. Though distantly related to the
herbivorous, elephantine eiglophians, which roam the western plains and live off much
of the local vegetation, tantari hunt, sleep, and migrate with their prey in a massive
herd. Shaggy, like the eiglophians, but with thinner, clawed legs and a semiprehensile
tail, tantari prefer rugged, mountainous terrain, but are not as territorial or as
resourceful as most predators.
“There’s nothing in nature quite like [the tantari],” said Ranger Joshua Eisenholt of the
Central Eiglophian Reserve. “Wholly devoted to hunting a select few creatures, as if
deathly allergic to anything else, they would rather starve than seek alternative food
sources. This has effectively made them symbiotically dependent on their
environment, and in the worst possible way.”
According to Eisenholt and area zoologists, this peculiar behavioral trait of tantari has
its good and bad points. On the one hand, humans can safely enter the midst of a
tantari herd without fear of being attacked, because humans never register to the
animals as potential prey. On the other hand, however, unexpected shifts in the
weather, which can throw off the migratory cycle of the birds or the growth cycle of
the berry plants, can easily spell doom for the tantari.
Despite tantari’s peculiar habits, however, Eisenholt says that the actual numbers of
the tantari do not seem to dwindle to any appreciable degree with each passing year--a
fact that has kept them from being added to the list of endangered species on Towne,
though the Central Eiglophian Reserve is considered an official haven for the animals.
INN - Interstellar News Network
ATHALAU--The annual return of the tantari, a smaller, hardier cousin species to the
six-legged eiglotherium of the western plains on Hyboria, began today as forestry
rangers in the Central Eiglophian Mountain Reserve sighted a dozen of the creatures
foraging for food along the mountain base. The return of the lithe hexapods to the
area marks the completion of an annual migratory cycle from the northern ranges:
Tantari follow several resident bird species and the growth cycles of mountain berry
trees that are their only sources of food.
Tantari, likened in many ways to Terran mountain lions, are known for their amazing
agility and extremely limited food preference. Though distantly related to the
herbivorous, elephantine eiglophians, which roam the western plains and live off much
of the local vegetation, tantari hunt, sleep, and migrate with their prey in a massive
herd. Shaggy, like the eiglophians, but with thinner, clawed legs and a semiprehensile
tail, tantari prefer rugged, mountainous terrain, but are not as territorial or as
resourceful as most predators.
“There’s nothing in nature quite like [the tantari],” said Ranger Joshua Eisenholt of the
Central Eiglophian Reserve. “Wholly devoted to hunting a select few creatures, as if
deathly allergic to anything else, they would rather starve than seek alternative food
sources. This has effectively made them symbiotically dependent on their
environment, and in the worst possible way.”
According to Eisenholt and area zoologists, this peculiar behavioral trait of tantari has
its good and bad points. On the one hand, humans can safely enter the midst of a
tantari herd without fear of being attacked, because humans never register to the
animals as potential prey. On the other hand, however, unexpected shifts in the
weather, which can throw off the migratory cycle of the birds or the growth cycle of
the berry plants, can easily spell doom for the tantari.
Despite tantari’s peculiar habits, however, Eisenholt says that the actual numbers of
the tantari do not seem to dwindle to any appreciable degree with each passing year--a
fact that has kept them from being added to the list of endangered species on Towne,
though the Central Eiglophian Reserve is considered an official haven for the animals.
| April 26, 3133 |