Taduque Chimera

The concept of a chimera is universal. Found by the Conservator Thororold Mistweaver, there exists a creature that was never seen apart from in myth until very recently.

Named for the children lost in an older myth, the foliad conservator has brought them to the eye of the public - this long-lost billed monotreme.

Basic Information

Anatomy

With the head of a water fowl, with a wide brimmed beak filled with small serrations; the body of a hopping mouse, and the tail of an Greater zuma bird, if not for its almost metre high form, this might be confused for some weird taxidermy.

The chimera has a poisonous foreclaw on its long feet, a prescertarian gut, and leg muscles that allow a metre long standing horizontal jump. They are covered in a mix of feathers and a thick, oily fur, with two wings, and those two powerful hopping legs. The toes on the those legs are webbed apart from the one with the foreclaw.

Genetics and Reproduction

Being a monotreme, Taduque chimeras lay eggs, which they incubate in a nest, before the newborn is raised in a pouch lined with nipples.

Either parent can produce the milk needed to raise the child, both genders having the pouches to raise the child. Chimera are a highly sexual binary species, being defined by who has the genes and biology to produce the egg.

It is the male of the species whose genetic material does the piercing, though it is with the male's biology that the egg turns into the Egg. It is the male who has the biology to eject the shelled egg.

Dietary Needs and Habits

The Taduque is carnivorous, lifing off a diet of fish and surface insects. While they could consume small mammals to survive, their talons seem to be more an extreme form of aggressive defense.

Behaviour

These chimera are amphibious in the way the reader would see a duck as amphibious. Their wings provide the ability to glide short distances, though measurements have provided evidence that they should have enough lift for full-blown flight.

Additional Information

Geographic Origin and Distribution

Hidden within the Caasi Bushland and the area of the Starfall River closest to this region, the Taduque has often been known as a 'something', in the way that 'something was in the bushes over there' or 'I think I saw something' when hearing the crashing of the massive hops that this monotreme is possible of. Fiercely territorial, Thorold Mistweaver supposed in his report on these creatures that the reason they were not recorded before this time was the combination of mythical status within the local towns, and the extreme aggression around their nests that make survival significally unlikely.

Perception and Sensory Capabilities

The taduque chimera has a skin that can sense the vibrations in the water around it. While more blind within the air with this sense, it does add a little extra warning to the sense of the chimera as it moves.

Lifespan

8 years

Average Height

1m maximum

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Green and brown fur and feathers, bright orange beak.

Geographic Distribution

• Caasi Bushland
• Starfall River

Discovered by

Thorold Mistweaver