Ossa

**Ossa** are huge armoured herbivore critters with clubbed tails that live in herds. They are a staple critter as they are easy to produce and act as a source of food for other critters and synths.

## History

Looking at large herbivores such as bison, rhino, and buffalo, there were lots of different instances of different "heavy weight herbivores" that had been removed from certain environments, which resulted in overgrowth of certain plants as usually these animals would have been there to manage the landscape naturally.

#### **Uses**

Ossa are used as large grazing animals, both for clearing overgrown vegetation domestically to manage landscapes, and also can be used as a source of meat and food as the meat from one ossa is the equivalent to 7 beef cattle.

## Description

Ossa are approximately 170-200 cm tall at the shoulder, and over 9 meters (900cm) in length, and can weigh up to 2 tonnes. They are heavy built with dense bones, covered in osteoderms along their back, and a tail held horizontal with their spine that ends in a club. As well as a clubbed tail, they have thick forward pointing horns like a bison, with small prongs along them. Their large drooping ears are mobile but flick more to disturb flies from around their faces, and as they cannot fully scratch themselves with their feet, they will roll and rub against one another if they itch.

Male Ossa are called bulls, and have much larger horns and heavier clubs.

They are predominantly tan-brown, with lighter bellies that are lightly spotted and a dark muzzle with a white stripe that runs just in front of their eyes, which have a horizonal pupil. There are lots of different variations in colour morphs, from cow-like pieballed to lightly striped and rusty brown.

**Biology**

As they are easy to produce and can reproduce naturally, they are often left to form herds naturally in large landscapes. One Ossa cow can have a small litter of 2-5 offspring, approximately twice per year in good conditions, which start off small, no larger than dogs, but will become mature adults by the time they are two years old.

#### **Senses**

Ossa have good hearing and senses of smell, with long whiskers. They seek out plants that are rich in iron and calcium.

## Behaviour

Ossa behave a lot like bovine mammals, grazing for most of the day in herds, eating a huge variety of undergrowth plants from rough grasses and rotting bark, to thorny blackberry and Japanese knotweed, even digging up the roots of these plants with their hoofed toes. A typical herd of ossa consists of 5-20 individuals in a matriarchal structure with an elder female leading the heard to greener pastures and with male ossa living on the outskirts of the herd, providing protection similar to European Bison.

A key note for the ossa is to *not* view them as gentle giants. Though they will be affectionate and enjoy receiving pats and scratches from individuals that they know well, they are as dangerous as bison and buffalo, and when threatened will charge. They can be trained to associate a herdsman as being friends so that they wont charge them, however they are easily irritated by smaller creatures that scurry around their feet and will stomp or whack them and so it is recommended to not approach ossa in 'packs' or to crouch down anywhere near them.

They engage in headbutting matches as a form of socialising, however tail clubbing is used as a defence and as a form of mating display from both male and female ossa, with males hitting one another and females displaying their strength by smashing down trees or swiping rocks away. With their tail clubs, ossa can spin round very rapidly to whack things including other critters and vehicles.

## Ecological Purpose

As ARCDA has a way of trying to improve nature and create something new, they designed the Ossa off cattle, bison, and ankylosaurids, giving them some defence against the large predators that they had created as well as tools in the same manner as elephants and rhino to move and destroy trees or bulldoze their way through rugged terrain.

## Subspecies and Variants

There are many colour variants of Ossa but currently no definitive sub-species.

## See More

* Synths
* ARCDA
* Critters

## Trivia

* Ossa are referenced a lot in the Compass Series, as they are present at the ranch that Hasekura had, and the Gregales eat ossa meat.
* Ossa are based off a combination of bison and ankylosaurids.

## Site Navigation

 Storm Series
 Synths
 Other