Post by Lyrikitty on Nov 12, 2008 12:30:14 GMT -5
Whers - another of the hiccups in the dragon breeding program, whers are a totally wild species found only on the Southern Continent, where they were left after the Second Crossing. Like watchwhers, they show the full range of dragon colors, and once again the greens are sterile and cannot reproduce. However, whers are "better designed" than their domestic cousins -- although mainly nocturnal they are not photophobic, they have legs long and powerful enough to carry their heavy bodies clear of the ground, and they have little discernable scent. Whers have a wide range across the entirety of the Southern Continent and show a complex social structure. Golds control large territories in which they construct breeding dens; a single gold territory typically contains five or six smaller territories controlled by males who fight to maintain their borders and to attract the gold to their patch when she is ready to mate - a result of this is that the small blues are very rare as the larger bronzes and browns quickly kill them in territorial fights. Greens do not hold territories and wander freely through those of the males; as greens are small and agile they can generally avoid detection unless they are in mating heat, in which case the males welcome them. A mated gold lays 7-10 eggs in an underground den, keeping them warm by piling rotting vegetation around
them; after hatching she feeds the young for a month before abandoning them to find their own territories. Gold whers can be fairly large (similar in size to a Terran lioness), while bronzes and browns are maybe two-thirds that size. Greens and blues are about half the size of a gold or smaller, but adult blues are extremely rare. One aspect of the small size of the greens is that they can use their wings to glide small distances -- in all other colors, the wings are functionally useless. Whers are active hunters but will readily take penned domestic stock if given the opportunity; as a result they are unpopular with the Southern settlers who must nonetheless treat them with considerable respect as whers consider humans a prey animal as much as any wherry.
them; after hatching she feeds the young for a month before abandoning them to find their own territories. Gold whers can be fairly large (similar in size to a Terran lioness), while bronzes and browns are maybe two-thirds that size. Greens and blues are about half the size of a gold or smaller, but adult blues are extremely rare. One aspect of the small size of the greens is that they can use their wings to glide small distances -- in all other colors, the wings are functionally useless. Whers are active hunters but will readily take penned domestic stock if given the opportunity; as a result they are unpopular with the Southern settlers who must nonetheless treat them with considerable respect as whers consider humans a prey animal as much as any wherry.