Flare Manestrider
| Ancestor: | Descendants: |
|---|---|
The flare manestrider split from its ancestor. Both males and females now have a mane, though it is much larger and more colorful in the males, and the mane forms two rows of large feathers on either side of the neck that can be flared out to startle predators or impress potential mates.
The male never loses his vibrant coloration, even though this results in most males being eaten; this demonstrates to females that they can survive despite their natural handicap, which in turn means they must be quite fit. The seasonal rut is less extreme than in its ancestor. Male flare manestriders will attempt to court females by standing with their neck straight, ears and tail erect, legs slightly bowed, and mane flared out. They will waddle around like this, making sounds and shaking their feathers, causing their iridescent feathers to seem to change color, in hopes of catching a female's attention. If the display is to the female's liking, she will watch with interest, but wait just in case a more suitable male with a prettier display is attracted by the sound. Once the female has accepted the male's advances, they will mate, and the male will then leave to try courting more females.
Like its ancestor, the flare manestrider nests communally and its babies hatch as naked legless larvae which depend on parental care. The male plays no part in this, as he would only endanger the breeding colony. One notable new behavior is is that, in warmer biomes where they are not quickly chilled to death, orphaned or neglected larvae will crawl around the colony begging for food until they are adopted, often by mothers which have lost their babies. Larvae must be fed regurgitated food until their legs and feathers grow in, at which point they will leave the colony and follow their mother, adoptive or otherwise, when she goes out foraging.
The flare manestrider has a flatter beak than its ancestor, more suited to moving dirt as it searches for relatively softer and high quality food. It will consume various roots, shrooms, and worms, and particularly favors the roots of herbs, but its favorite food is the "crumples" of the crunchy trufflegrass. Its sense of smell is not especially great, as its smelling organs have to also function as eyes (which is more important), but it compensates by tasting the soil for signs of trufflegrass as it rummages around. It actually cannot truly taste the sweetness of the crumples, but instead detects the flavor as savory, similar to terran hummingbirds. It will also preferentially seek out and pluck "fat hairy sausage" stage teacup saucebacks from their burrows to devour, when available. It will also disrupt platelands by prying the plateland crystals away from the soil to consume their core tissue and roots, helping prevent them from completely dominating the landscape. It is able to eat monostage dirteaters by wedging its jaws between the shells to separate them, or by just stomping on them to break it.
The retention of echolocation is varied across the flare manestrider population, due to it being present in more open biomes where this ability isn't necessary at all. Within dark forests, as much as 98% of the population will be capable of echolocation. In purple forests, this drops to around 60-70%. In the shrublands, especially in regions far away from any woodland, as little as 12% of the population may have the ability, and those that do have it are unpracticed and will struggle when placed in dark forest conditions.