Predator Domesticates - Daggerfoots, Hoppers, Shupa and Devils

**Predator Domesticates - Daggerfoots, Hoppers, Shupa and Devils**

Tiotl - (latin: Sicaripods, eg ‘killer foot’) - are the dominant marsupial predators of Antarctica. The Sicaripods, though marsupials, are not directly related to the kangaroo of Australia.

As in South America and Australia, Marsupials quickly dominated predator niches. The trouble with predation is that on the whole, it is an uneven lifestyle. For predators, especially large predators, meals may be infrequent and erratic. It is an inherently feast and famine form of subsistence. Marsupials with a lower and somewhat variable metabolic rate were more tolerant of the relatively unstable lifestyle, and thus tended to dominate, at least until replacement by efficient placental predators.

In Antarctica, several lines of marsupial predators emerged, the most remarkable of which were the Sicaripods. The Sicaripods are large footed predators, bipeds, with heavy tails, hopping gaits, and ferocious clawed arms. They have heavier heads than kangaroos, flexible short necks usually somewhat flat, long faces with forward facing eyes and heavy crushing jaws. Many are described as having vaguely humanlike faces.

Sicaripods have spiny backs, studded with large quills. The purpose of these are apparently display. But also protect the animals from rear attack. The Sicaripods have large eyes with binocular vision, are nocturnal adapted, highly social, and considered as the most intelligent marsupials. Sicaripods are known tool users, and will use stones as hammers to shatter bones or shells.

The largest and most feared Sicaripod is the Daggerfoot. A pack animal standing seven feet when erect and weighing up to three hundred pounds, the Daggerfoots organize as male harems around dominant females. A pod of Daggerfoot may contain up to a dozen individuals, including the dominant alpha female, a beta or butch (male mimicking) female or two, a handful of harem males and an assortment of juveniles.

The Daggerfoot is a rough evolutionary analogue to the Saber Toothed cats of the old world. Their prey include even the bull Shaghut and largest Mothbeasts. Instead of dagger teeth, however, the Daggerfoot has specialized claws. Their strategy is to leap upon a large prey animal, swing around and use powerful kicks to eviscerate their victim. Afterwards, they will leap away and the group will wait for the prey to weaken from blood loss and chock, before moving in to kill and feed.

A single Daggerfoot is usually sufficient to kill a large animal. Social cooperation often comes defending the kill. A Daggerfoot pod will surround a kill and drive off rival predators or scavengers for days until a kill is fully consumed.

Daggerfoots frequently preyed on humans, particularly when human hunting impacted game populations. They often terrorized human populations. Their range considerably diminished, but they persist in significant wild populations to the current day, particularly in highlands and the Wang Gash.

Daggerfoot were semi-domesticated, and are used in war and bloodsport. High ceremonial occasions are often marked by having Daggerfoot battle each other, or they may be used to fight other animals or eviscerate prisoners.

Much more common were the Hoppers. Much smaller than the Daggerfoots, the Hoppers in different varieties range between 50 and 100 pounds. They are highly social, existing in pods of a dozen or more, though sometimes several pods will sometimes congregate into groups of 50 or 60 animals. One recorded aggregate pod was estimated to contain 124 adult individuals, and stripped several villages of both humans and animals.

In addition to being highly social and gregarious, the Hoppers are extremely inventive hunters, working cooperatively and even using impromptu tools for a variety of hunting and feeding strategies. Hoppers have been observed catching fish, feeding from anthills, catching birds and so forth. They learn readily from each other, and are quite curious. Occasionally wild hoppers will begin to specialize in human hunting and will plague rural areas until killed or driven off.

Hoppers are readily tamed, and domesticated breeds have existed for an estimated twelve thousand years, in association with hunter gatherer societies. Hoppers make effective hunting companions and aides, as well as shepherds and use in bloodsports. They are loyal and affectionate, and make good household pets, though they are prone to sneaking babies. In many ways, they parallel dogs in northern societies.

A unique Sicaripod are the Shuhpa, so named by Spanish castaways who were the first westerners to encounter the creature. Unlike the Hoppers and Daggerfoot, the Shuhpa is a solitary predator. It’s feeding strategy is to stealthily approach sleeping prey and to use its teeth to make an incision under the skin of its prey. The Shupa will then insert its tongue into the wound and rasps out blood, muscle and organ tissue. The Shupa secretes a mildly paralytic venom and narcotic, as well as a powerful coagulant. Very little bleeding takes place.

The Shuhpa’s main prey are large animals, Shaghut, Shaghai, Astropotheres, Mothbeasts and even Daggerfoot, on whom it is essentially a parasite. It’s attacks are stealthy and not usually fatal. Wild Shaghut, for instance, have been found with a multitude of dozens of Shuhpa scars. However, when preying on animals smaller or near its own size, the level of injury is such that victims will tend to die.

Though solitary, the Shuhpa are thought to be the most intelligent of the Sicaripods. Semi-domesticated, the Shuhpa reproduce well in captivity, but are often willful. The Shuhpa venom is significant in Tsalal medicine. However, the most common use of the Shuhpa is for their narcotic/paralytic effects. There are subcultures devoted to the kiss of the Shuhpa, which over time can be quite addictive. Warrior cults often prize the kiss before battle as it is believed to confer immunity from pain and superhuman bravery and prowess. For others, it is a religious practice. Predominantly in modern Tsalal society, it is a recreational activity. Practitioners are well noted for their bloody mouths, scarred tongues and rough voices. There is a certain risk associated with the Kiss of the Shuhpa, as prolonging contact increases the ‘high’ but too long a contact will result in fatal injuries or infection. It should be noted that one form of execution, in certain areas, is the ‘Reversed Kiss’ of the Shuhpa.

Incredibly stealthy, the wild Shuhpa is difficult to capture. Wild specimens have lived for years in proximity to cities without detection. Often the only sign will be a string of deaths of anomalous prey animals. Shuhpa have proven themselves incredibly tolerant of a variety of climates. A population appears to have established themselves in the southern regions of North America in the 20th century. It is believed that domesticated animals may have been introduced by narcotics enthusiasts and gone feral.

By far the most terrifying of the Sicaripods are the smallest, the so called ‘Devils.’ Roughly cat sized, running ten to fifteen pounds, these diverge considerably from the kangaroo like forms of their relatives. Their general build is closer to a rabbit, with powerful, but not overwhelming, rear hopping feet. Their forefeet have retractable grasping claws. The creature can move extremely quickly with a rabbitlike gait, can turn instantly, climb trees easily, swims readily and can make stunning jumps of a dozen feet or more. Unlike the Daggerfoot or Hoppers, whose main attack is hind or foreclaws, the Devil’s weapon is its huge oversized head with powerful jaws. The Devil has a full compliment of sharp shearing teeth, and the most powerful bite ever recorded for an animal of its size. Although not capable of crushing or breaking bone, an attacking Devil can almost instantaneously shear a volume of flesh from prey the size of an apple. Typically, on an attack, the devil will leap on and grasp a prey animal, shear off an apple sized plug of flesh, dismount, spit it out, and then leap to repeat the process until the prey succumbs or it is killed.

However, it is the reproductive cycle that is the most terrifying aspect of the devils. When a female comes into reproductive estrous, it will release pheromones which cause all males in the vicinity to swarm. Sometimes several females will come together, triggering common estrous. The result is a roving swarm of hundreds of animals.

When a devil swarm forms, the only response is immediate and direct flight. The swarm is fearless, relentless and unstoppable. All other animals flee without hesitation. There are reports of a swarm stripping a bull shaghut down to a skeleton in a few hours. The devils have been described as Piranha crossed with Wolverines.

Despite the primal terror that Devils inspire, the species has been domesticated. Castrated male Devils are relatively placid and docile and can be trained to avoid attacking humans and other domesticated animals. They are extremely voracious hunters of small prey, and are used in agriculture and urban settings to clear out vermin, pests and parasites, which they do extremely efficiently. They are very affectionate, make loving pets and are also valued for the quality of their fur.

On the other hand, Females are handled very carefully, however, and usually kept isolated and well fed, and washed frequently with pheromone suppressants. Fertile males are also kept caged.

In 1895 the Chinese government imported breeding pairs into Shanghai in a misguided attempt to combat runaway rat infestations. It appeared to work, until 1936 when a massive swarm erupted, causing widespread panic and causing sections of the city to be firebombed. The Chinese governments have made strenuous attempts to eradicate the species and declared Devils exterminated by 1948. Doubt persists. There were rumours of swarms along the Yellow River in 1962 and 1963. Some researchers suggest that rather than being exterminated, Chinese devils have been steadily propagating at low levels, in accordance with historical behaviour patterns. If this is true, based on Tsalal records, a major-mega swarm is predicted to break out somewhere around 2012-2014. Some conspiracy theorists have speculated that the Chinese 5 Gorges Dam project is actually a desperate effort to eradicate the species in China, or at least forestall the predicted mega-swarm.

International organizations have designated the Antarctic Devil as the most dangerous potential invasive species ever, and several countries have authorized the death penalty for importation of females or uncastrated males.

Chupacabras and a whole species of the Killer rabbit from Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail, Cavras along the rivers, and multiple gunpowder equipped barbarians (I support the Second amendment but I'm pretty sure this is a bad thing), if I was running a country in this TL, I think I'd be strongly tempted to go nuke happy, of course I frequently want to go nuke happy, which is probably why I don't have any political power, still a great TL

Hunter S Thompson in the *Tsalal society*?

Now i know things are getting bad.

And a problem with Chupacabras is the fact that Malthus's theory is going to kick in pretty quickly if they swarm, especially if they are cut off from food.

But, if all else fails... Kill it with fire!

Shuhpa don't swarm. They're solitary stealthy predator/parasites.

Devil's swarm in response to females coming into heat. Luckily, once they make sufficiently sized, or sufficiently numerous kills, they get into the business of mating, estrous ends, and the swarm disperses.

Fire won't deter a swarm, but it will kill it, as the Chinese have demonstrated.