Ribbonet

**Ribbonet** is a highly intelligent, omnivorous mammal species classified in the order of lineserres.

### Habitat and natural threats

Ribbonets inhabit the old, dense forests of western and north-western Wagara, preferably deciduous with swamps. They generally prefer low altitude and a warm climate without four pronounced seasons. They are occasionally encountered in non-forested grassy lowlands or swamps, gardens, young forests and cultivated fields . Some of them even live in depressions, much lower than most common passes. Ribbonets spend 80% to 90% of their day sitting high in the trees or traveling distances on branches. Their main activities include hunting, eating, resting and socialization. On most days, they travel barely a few hundred meters in horizontal distance or fewer. They are not capable of swimming, but like the other lineserres have the ability of a semi-gliding controlled flight. They have no significant predators because they are very agile, not significantly nutritious and spent most of their time way above the ground which is where most of the big predators in their areas live. They can occasionally be attacked and killed by scissors, passes, crackors, abassers, crocodiles or monsters if caught in a spot of bother.

### Diet

Ribbonets are very opportunistic in their foraging and their diet changes from season to season. Meat makes for about 65% to 90% of their overall diet. Without the venom spike of a pass or the chisel of a hipikapus, ribbonets usually only can hunt smaller prey such as birds, rodents, the young offspring of bigger mammals and sometimes even bulbers. They also often consume insects, bird eggs and honey. They are also the only current lineserr species to firmly include plants in their diet. They prefer young leaves or very sweet fruits, but are capable of swallowing and digesting basically any soft section of a plant. In total, ribbonets consume around 317 different kinds of both meat and plant-based foods. Ten-year research of urine and stool samples in the Guntreng Palter Ribbonet Conservation Project showed that ribbonets give birth during or just after the period in which their most common prey give birth as well. They consume up to 4000 calories daily in that period. During the poorer seasons, they can survive on just 300 calories daily. Combined with their long-term parental care and an extensive lactation period, ribbonets have one of the biggest birth intervals in the animal world.

### Reproduction

Female ribbonets usually experience their first ovulation cycle at the age of about 5.8 to 7.1 years. It occurs earlier in females with dominant mothers. After their first ovulation cycle, females enter a period of juvenile infertility which lasts for between 1 and 4 years. Pregnancy lasts 13 months, and females usually give birth to their first cub at 11 or 12 years of age. Females have a very long birth interval of about 7-9 years. They give birth to their final cub at the age of about 37 to 43 years, which means most often they only give birth to between 4 and 6 cubs in their lifetime, leading to a very small population growth for the species. Some females have been known to breed until the end of their life, but cubs born to females over 40 years have a much increased mortality rate.

### Development and life cycle

For the first four months after the birth of a cub, it travels on the back of its mother, and after that it is capable of traversing flat surfaces on its own. At the age of about a year, the cub starts to learn how to fly, an ability it usually gains full control over at 16 to 18 months. Lactation usually lasts up to 20 months, but if poor seasons continue it has been observed to last even up to 4 years. After ending lactation, the cub starts consuming plants on its own as well as meat scored by other members of the pool. At the age of about 3 years, the cub starts its own hunting. At the age of 4-6 years, they start to stray away from their mothers for days at a time, accompanying other members of the formation or even exploring the environment on their own at up to a kilometer away from their pool. The mother, however, is fully committed to protecting, socializing with and ensuring the well-being of her cub until the next one is born.

Males reach adulthood at the age of around 15. It is then that their squeaky voice is altered and they gain the capability of emitting whirring noises used during mating. 13-17 years of age is the average window in which most maturing males leave their natal pool. Some males have been observed departing as early as at 8-11 years, but usually only in the case of the death of their mother. Several males are known to have stayed until the age of 19 to 22 years. In normal circumstances, any male who has already stayed past the age of 22 stays at his natal pool for the rest of his life. Males who were born to older mothers have a higher probability of their mother dying when they are still young, so most males staying in their natal pool for life are first-borns. In the wild, ribbonets live about 35 to 40 years, with a few living up to 48 years of age, while in captivity they can frequently reach 45, with the oldest known female dying at the age of 57.

### Social behavior

Ribbonets live in tightly-bound social groups called "pools". A pool tends to consist of an adult male, 2 to 3 adult females and their offspring, but pools with several adult males also exist. Contrary to passes and many other animals, there is no strength-based competition to be the dominant male in a pool - the leader is always the oldest and most experienced specimen. The position only gets transferred in the event of his death. In abundant periods several pools can coalesce together to create a "superpool", while in seasons of famine a pool may split into families of single females and their respective offspring as well as adult males traveling on their own. About 90% of males and 50% of females leave their natal pool after reaching adulthood.

Males almost always go on to create a new group, while females either join those new groups created by similar-aged males or already established ones. Usually the group joined by the young specimen belongs to the same clan as their family pool, so the specimen may occasionally rejoin its mother in the case of a superpool. After the death of the dominant male, either the beta male (usually his oldest living son) takes over, the oldest female leads the members to the closest solo male or the whole pool disperses. Aggressive behaviors between ribbonets are extremely rare and only less than 0.25% of them results in death. There may be some mild competition between females in the same pool for access to and favors of the group's breeder.