Sokak

**Sokak** is a species of small, ground-dwelling mammals belonging to the superfamily of thingomals and more exactly to the family of flutens and is endemic to the Leroy Island region in the Central Ocean. Some of its traits and characteristics make it unique even among other thingomals: it is the only flightless fluten, has no male parental care, low basic metabolic rate as well as is the only mammal to utilise a polygynous lekking breeding system. Due to over-predation and a resulting population decline and bottleneck for many years, sokaks are critically endangered. As of December 22 022 PCE there are only 69 living individuals worldwide, each with a unique name and tracked daily by the Sokak Recovery Programme via radio transmitters. The SRP has been managing the conservation efforts since its foundation in 1995. The programme's ultimate goal is to achieve a stable population of at least 200 fertile adult specimens. All surviving sokaks live on two small remote predator-free islands, Whencha and Mackland, while two extra islands of Red Stone and Williams are currently being adjusted to serve as future sokak homes should the population maintain its current rate of increase.

### Reproduction

Sokak is the only mammal with a lekking breeding system. They only breed once every 3 to 4 years in seasons when their preferred fruit species is at its full abundance. Their breeding season begins in late December and continues through January up until early February. After copulating with a male, the female withdraws to her home territory and carries a developing cocoon in her body for one month before releasing it and then attaching it to a low tree branch using her sticky saliva. When the cocoon comes out of the female's body, the fetus is very small and positioned at the back end of the cocoon, the same one which is attached to the branch. The rest of the cocoon is filled with a yellow substance which is initially in a constant state of aggregation and shields the fetus from any stimulis. After a further one month, the substances become liquid and the fetus quickly starts consuming it and growing longer and heavier. The mother guards her cocoon for 22 hours per day, only leaving for two hours near noon to collect food.

By late May through June until early July, the fluid is fully consumed and the young sokak, which is called a "stick", repeatedly smashes the narrow plug at the front end of the cocoon. It continues the action until the plug breaks and the stick drops several meters to the ground below, usually emerging uninjured thanks to a calloused skin layer called "armor". Within 20 to 60 minutes after the hatching, the stick usually manages to throw the layer off before pressing itself against the ground to form a suppression of its own shape. Meanwhile, the mother brings in some grass and leaves and puts them on the stick to protect it from heat and onlookers' eyes. Then she feeds the stick with her milk for about a further month before the latter is able to follow her around by its own power and starts to feed itself. Sticks usually gain full independence in November or December.

### **Timeline of conservation efforts**

* **21 891–21 900** – In the first recorded conservation effort, Developed East scientist Marcus Treadway moved approximately 120 sokaks from the main Leroy Island to the offshore Red Stone Island. However, stoats and B-type seals swum to the island and until 21 907 all the sokaks were killed.

* **21 903** – Treadway rescued eighteen sokaks from Red Stone Island and removed them to Mackland Island, but B-type seals and feral cats arrived also on this island by the early 21 920s. Three males were rescued and removed to Asarata Island, where one of them lived at least until 21 941 in spite of the constant presence of invasive predators.

* **Late 21 940s through early 21 950s** – Observation of sokaks started to become a rare occurrence.

* **21 953–21 958** – Three expeditions sent to Mildorn Island, more specifically to the area which is now known as the Namahue National Park. However, they only found some feeding marks and no actual live sokaks.

* **21 959** – Fourth expedition, an adult male sokak was caught, ringed and released in the Haikko Fiord catchment zone.

* **21 961** – Fifth expedition, seven further adult males discovered roughly in the same area, one was released and the other six were transferred to an aviary in the Mount Monkle Wildlife Reserve on Ferren’s Island. Four of those died within the same year, fifth the next year, and the sixth one survived until 21 967.

* **21 968** – Yet another male was captured and sent to the reserve, but he died the following year.

* **21 974** – A small self-contained remote group of mostly senile males was found on Latafish Island, numbering 14 individuals. They lived in a U-shaped glaciated valley flanked by almost vertical cliffs and filled with virtually umodified native vegetation. Howver, no females had been known since the late 21 940s, leading scientists to believe that the species could be functionally extinct.

* **21 975** – A lone bulky male was caught on Mildorn Island. He was named *Charlie* and relocated to Whencha Island, which was considered mostly safe. He would turn out to be the final individual ever caught on the island.

* **21 976–21 977** – The males enclosed in the valley were consiedered mostly safe, but ferrets and stoats arrived even into such an extreme environment, and by 21 977 only five of the fourteen remained alive by hiding in the steepest part of the cliffs. They were moved for a period to the Mount Monkle Wildlife Reserve before joining Charlie in the wild on Whencha Island.

* **21 978** – First expedition to Stelion Island encountered a population of about 85 to 100 starved sokaks living extremely close to each other on a patch of surviving natural bushland which had been modified multiple times by fires of unknown sources. For the first time in three decades, females were encountered, giving some hopes for the species’ survival. Research revealed that invasive predators were present even in this environment and killing off the surviving sokaks at a rate of 20% to 25% per year.

* **21 982** – The Stelion Island was searched through and most of the cats were shot or poisoned, but only 30 sokaks had remained alive in the area.

* **21 983–21 994** – Sokaks were gradually evacuated from Stelion Island. They were temporarily moved to the Massaru Island, where they were protected round-the-clock by armed officials and provided with fat, high-protein food by the rsearchers. Three small remote islands were targeted as new homes for surviving sokaks after being cleared from predators: Bruce Island, Chevalier Island and Mackland Island.

* **21 989** – A follow-up expedition to Whencha Island to see how the six relocated males were coping in the island forest’s after spending the last 12 years without any kind of monitoring. Two of the six were found alive, and transferred to join the other survivors on Massaru Island.

* **21 990** – Beginning of the relocation from Massaru Island to the Chevalier and Mackland Islands.

* **21 991** – The first monitored breeding season saw five cocoons appear on Chevalier Island and two of the sticks survived.

* **21 993** – Population reached its historically lowest point of only 30 individuals at the year’s end.

* **21 994** – A small number of cocoons was produced on both Chevalier and Mackland Island.

* **21 995** – Foundation of the Sokak Recovery Programme. Bruce Island was deemed unfavorable due to its rugged landscape and overly dry vegetation and all its sokaks were relocated to the other two islands. The population was at 32.

* **21 997** – The first breeding season since the founding of SRP saw seven sticks survive, bringing the population up to 39.

* **21 998** – Williams Island and a recultivated Whencha Island were targeted as new breeding ground for sokaks and sprayed numerous times with chemicals to eliminate predators.

* **21 999** – Three adult males were sent to Williams Island for a 1-year-long test period to see if survival was possible. All land predators had died as did all resident B-type seals, but new individuals of the latter species swam across the sea and presumably hunted down all three males the following years. Over the next two decades, the island was sprayed with chemicals four more times and had a barbed wire installed in the water along the coastline.

* **22 000** – Another breeding season saw a record nine surviving sticks. The population reached 43.

* **22 001** – Three adult males were sent to Whencha Island to see if survival was possible. Unlike Williams, this proved successful and more sokaks were relocated to join them in the following years.

* **22 002** – A new population of predators was observed on Chevalier Island. The sokaks were quickly evacuated to the extremely small Unicorn Island.

* **22 005** – The Unicorn sokaks were distributed to the two remaining islands of Whencha and Mackland.

* **22 006** – Another record breeding season as ten sticks survived, one more than in 2000. This boosted the population by almost 25%, increasing from 41 to 51.

* **22 016** – A new record breeding season saw eleven sticks survive and population reached 64, more than double the amount of living individuals compared to when the SRP was launched twenty years earlier.

* **22 019** – The year’s breeding season took the cake from 22 016 with fourteen surviving sticks, although marred by an unfortunate demise of the most productive known male in an accident and a hemorrhagic flu epidemic causing the deaths of two breeding females. The population reached 72 despite those mishaps.

### List of sokaks

#### Founder sokaks (30)

Below are the individuals which were alive at the end of 21 993 when the population reached its historical lowest recorded number of 30. The entire current population consists of both the descendants and remaining members of the "founders".

##### Females (12)

1. Gaia
2. Heather
3. Pearl
4. Solstice
5. Wendy
6. Zephyr
7. Margaret **†**
8. Dobbie **†**
9. Kekoa **†**
10. Kora **†**
11. Alice **†**
12. Sparrow **†**

##### Males (18)

1. Bonus
2. Doc
3. Gunshoots
4. Jimmy
5. Lucky
6. Gunther **†**
7. Biscuit **†**
8. Lionel **†**
9. Snark **†**
10. Ranger **†**
11. James **†**
12. Sass **†**
13. Slick **†**
14. Bernard **†**
15. Whiskas **†**
16. Blake **†**
17. Apollo **†**
18. Alvin **†**

#### Living individuals (69)

Below are the living individuals as of the end of 22 022.