Bouncers - family Saltator

## Etymology, discovery and naming

The English term "bouncer" stems from times when the creatures jumped several meters out of thickets they were hiding under when accidentally flushed by scientists, greatly startling the observers.

## Terminology

Male bouncers are called harveys; females are called lolas. The term pookie has been used to refer to a young bouncer.

The communal burrow of a group of bouncers is known as a nest. A group of baby bouncers produced from a single reproductive cycle is referred to as a hatching, and a group of bouncers living together is sometimes called a stampede.

## Taxonomy, origins and evolution

**Taxonomy**

During the second expedition to Wallace II, Dr. Bob Smith published a description of the creature along with its binomal nomenclature. The family name Saltator is taken from the Latin saltator meaning dancer. By the end of the second expedition, he had categorized six different species in the area of Media Insula that they were studying and had received additional field reports from researchers on other continents-.

**Evolution**

Bouncers are gomphiobians of the order planacorporia. Besides creatures that descended from bouncers, their closest relatives are members of genus Vrontientomos, the boomer bugs. The ancestors of boomer bugs split from bouncers approximately 42 million years ago. Their ancestor in turn split from the ancestors of current day Arborputatoria only around 55 MYA.

There are several reasons why bouncers were uniquely suited for colonization by rafting. They manage water use extremely well, they eat anything and with their reproductive anatomy a lone female can start a population with genetic diversity. Approximately 11 MYA, bouncers apparently rafted to Terra Septentrionis and about 15 MYA during a period of much lower seas they rafted to Tenebris. Possibly following the currents of the equatorial expressway, they rafted to Occidentis approximately 7MYA. They are also found on Meridanam and on other widely dispersed islands.

## Description

**Locomotion**

Bouncers move bipedally. Like boomer bugs, bouncers have large, elastic tendons in their hind legs. They store elastic strain energy in the tendons of their large hind legs, providing most of the energy required for each hop by the spring action of the tendons rather than by any muscular effort. There is also a link between the hopping action and breathing: as the feet leave the ground, air is expelled from the lungs; bringing the feet forward ready for landing refills the lungs, providing further energy efficiency. Studies of boomer bugs and bouncers have demonstrated, beyond the minimum energy expenditure required to hop at all, increased speed requires very little extra effort.

In general, bouncers are swift animals. The fastest of these, Rothschild's bouncer on the plains of Occidentis, has been clocked at up to 90 km/h over short distances. Over longer distances, they can run up to 60 km/h and can leap up to 5 m at a time. They can quickly change direction between jumps. The rapid locomotion of the bouncer may minimize energy cost and predation risk. Its use of a "move-freeze" mode may also make it less conspicuous to nocturnal predators.

Since speed and agility are a bouncer's main defenses against predators, bouncers have large hind leg bones and well-developed musculature. Though plantigrade at rest, bouncers are on their toes while running, assuming a more digitigrade form.

**Senses**

Their distinctive ears are typically longer than they are wide and are utilized to detect and avoid predators. Evolution has favored bouncers to have long ears, especially in areas where help is needed with dispersion of heat.

Bouncers have the gomphiobian compound eye. Their vision is not acute, but it is nearly 360 degrees and they can perceive motion very rapidly. This suits their lifestyle.

The widely spaced proboscises of bouncers give them the same stereoscopic olfactory sense of other planacorporians. Tests have shown that it is extremely acute. They use this in both finding food and avoiding predators. Bouncers learn what food that they like from smelling the breath of other bouncers. They strongly prefer food that other bouncers have eaten and survived.

**Anatomy**

The proboscises of family Saltator are relatively short, but long enough to let them smell in stereo. As well as taking in air and odors, their proboscises became central to their temperature regulation system. During high activity such as running from predators, their proboscises will fill with blood, ballooning them out. During their respiration, they will draw in outside air through moist passages. This sweat evaporates, efficiently cooling the animal. Most of this sweat is even recycled by their lungs during the respiration cycle.

The ancestral Saburramhabitatorian and Planacorporian system of respiration and circulation was retained without change. Their hearts have only two chambers, they have four hearts. Each lung has a heart that pumps unoxygenated blood in and a heart that pumps oxygenated blood out.

Bouncers have a three chambered stomach. The first chamber is the gizzard. Gastroliths that the bouncers swallow grind and break down their food. Material that the gastroliths can't sufficiently break down are returned to the bouncer's mounth for secondary chewing. The second chamber is the rumen. It is the largest stomach compartment. Microbes ferment the food and produce volatile fatty acids, which are the bouncer's main energy source. Finally, food travels to the abonasum or true stomach. The abomasum is lined with glands that release hydrochloric acid and digestive enzymes. These secretions break down the bouncer's food.

**Vestigial Organs**

Most notably, the second and third sets of legs have become to varying degrees vestigial. In most species, the remains of the third set are hidden in the pelvis while the second set are little more than sexual claspers. While most species have lost the infra-red pit eye common to genus Turpiscarnifex, the Snow Jumper of Terra Septentrionis has retained it.

**Dimensions**

The size varies considerably by species, from around 30 kg for the snow jumper found on Terra Septentrionis down to about 1.5 kg for the whiptail rock hopper in the high deserts of Media Insula.

**General morphology**

* Skin

The skin of bouncers has the same form of tough denticles as the rest of Saburramhabitatoria. As a prey species, their coloration matches their environment. In colder areas, they will have a layer of blubber under the skin to retain warmth. This can be up to 2 centimeters thick for snow jumpers.

* Dentition

Bouncers share the same two-bar linkage jaw with short rostrum that boomer bugs and climbers have. This gives many species of bouncers a bite that is surprisingly strong.

The dentition of bouncers varies, but in general they have one large incisor that doubles as a canine, 1 premolar and three molars. They have "open-rooted" incisors that keep growing throughout their lives. Their cheek and back teeth have anatomical roots and the crowns do not grow once they come in.

* Sexual characteristics

In most species, the male is noticeably larger but that is the only distinguishing sexual dimorphism. Generally, both sexes have the same coloration.

Bouncers are ovavivaparous. The female bouncer is usually pregnant in permanence, except on the day she gives birth. More eggs are often fertilized than what she delivers. Instead, the eggs enter into diapause. This pausing of development of the eggs allows bouncers to time the birth of the offspring under more favorable environmental conditions and maximizes the production of the next generation.

## Behavior

**Social and reproductive behavior**

Bouncers have a very specific mating ritual. The male will bring a large food offering to the female's burrow of a female that is in heat. If the female accepts the food and stashes it in her larder, they will mate. While they are sexually selective before being impregnated, once they are impregnated females they will trade sex for food with all males who make the attempt. After mating, the father has no involvement with the young.

**Mating, reproduction, and development**

Breeding takes place at any time of year. The gestation period is about 62 days. The number of young born averages four and ranges from one to nine. The young are quite large when born and grow fast, and some females breed successfully when they are as young as 45 days old. This small gomphiobian is unusual in that it produces a small number of precocial offspring with a high survival rate when it might have been expected to produce large litters of altricial young.

**Territorial and sheltering behaviors**

Most species of bouncers live in complex burrow systems. The burrows have separate chambers used for specific purposes like sleeping, cud chewing, living and food storage. The spacing of the burrows depends on the number of bouncers and the abundance of food. Bouncers also live in colonies that range from six to several hundred dens. The burrow of a bouncer is important in providing protection from the harsh desert environment. To maintain a constant temperature and relative humidity in their burrows, bouncers plug the entrances with soil during the day. When the outside temperature is too hot, a bouncer stays in its cool, humid burrow and leaves it only at night.

**Feeding behaviors**

As generalists, bouncers express great flexibility in their foraging behavior. They are predatory animals and adapt to different micro-habitats. They often meet and forage together in close proximity within and between sexes.

**Intelligence**

Experiments with bouncers in captivity has determined that they are of limited intelligence. Most behavior is instinctual. They are capable of learning three dimensional models in mazes. In one experiment, they controlled small cars with their front pincers to reach food treats.

## Ecology

**Habitat**

Bouncers have adapted to most habitats on the planet, from the jungles and deserts Media Insula to the tundra of Terra Septentrionis and dense forests and Tenebris. They are the most widely distributed land animal on Wallace II.

**Diet**

Bouncers are considered omnivores and eat a wide range of foods, including seeds, fruit, stems, leaves, fungi, and a variety of invertebrates and vertebrates. They are generalists, and thus not very specific in their food preferences. They have adapted to feed on a wide variety of polyspeculata, including many that other species find poisonous.

**Enemies and competitors**

Bouncers are a prey species and form a vital link in the food chain of every place they inhabit. They are on the menu for most small to mid-sized land and flying predators on Wallace II.

## Communication

**Body language**

The vast majority of communication among bouncers is by body language. While there are variations by species, here are a few that are almost always true.

* When they stand on their toes, back arched and trying to look large, they are aggressive.
* When their ears are pulled back against their neck, they are apprehensive.
* When folds are visible in their ears as they fold back, they are frightened.
* When their lip droops, displaying their incisors, they are sleepy.
* When their ears widen out and they sniff with their proboscises, they are happy.
* When they stretch their entire body forward, ears and proboscises focused on something, they are curious and investigating it.
* When they "pancake" with their legs under them, they are relaxed.

**Vocalizations**

Vocalizations are rare among bouncers, and mainly consist of alarm calls for predators or death screams. The calls seem to be instinctual and not any form of language.