Hugoldun

Disclaimer: The Hugoldun is a fictional animal from Keenan Taylor's Tales of Kaimere.

Video on the topic: Relic of a Lost Age: The Hugoldun

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Earth Ancestor: Moropus sp.

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Perissodactyla

Family: Chalicotheriidae

Genus: Hipponychys

Species: H. lazarus

### Description

hugoldun are among the largest of the residents of the Monsoon forest. They can survive in these forests year-round thanks to their height. Though most have a sandy brown pelt, a dark-pelted morph has been recorded numerous times. This doesn’t appear to be true melanism, as their legs are still pale, so is likely just a color morph.

   The mangrove forests along the coast are the only trees with regular water, so they have leaves year-round. The water they get is quite saline, considering it's.  directly from the Bay of Timugai. Mangrove trees are able to shed this salt from their leaves. Unfortunately, this means the lowest leaves in particular are the saltiest, which means small browsers need to climb to get leaves without much salt. Hugoldun have a twofold advantage: their size and enormous kidneys can handle extra salt, and their height means they can get to high leaves and minimize salt intake even though they are bulk feeders. Because of this, these resilient giants are able to persist in the mangrove swamps through the harsh months, then return inland to the forests when they reawaken during the monsoon season. For eight months throughout the year, the hugoldun is the most enormous animal in the forests.

  Unlike the ghlanos, which live in herds of a dozen or so mares and a stallion, hugoldun are much more solitary animals. Mares might live with a sister and their offspring in the same territory, but often they are on their own. The mangroves simply can’t support too many large animals in the same area. Occasionally they follow titans and camels inland to oasis hop. Stallions are much more nomadic, wandering along the coasts and foraging. Young stallions are much more likely to follow other giants inland to seek out oasis forests during the dry months, growing and bulking up when their homes are dry, but old and dominant stallions tend to prefer to remain in the coastal forests. This way they are able to dominate feeding opportunities and bulk up for mating, which often occurs halfway through the monsoon season.

  When the rains do come, a plethora of browsing opportunities present themselves. The once-skeletal forest comes alive with green. Many trees in these forests are deciduous, and grow a new set of leaves after the first rain. The storms aren’t always predictable, so the migratory species often get there a week or two after the storm, so the hugoldun residents enjoys exclusive access to the higher branches.

### Phylogeny

The Hugoldun is a direct descendant of the Earth genus Moropus, as well as all other kaimeran chalicotheres, with this genus being harvested during the North American harvest 14.2mya.

### Sexual DImorphism

Hugoldun stallions show generally more robust builds and like other chalicotheres of Kaimere, stallions have a nasal boss. Mares stand between six and seven feet at the shoulder and weigh between two and three tons, while most stallions are around eight feet at the shoulder and weigh six tons. With the largest stallions weighing nine tons.

### Human Relations

  For thousands of years, Arvelith have spoken of a giant creature called the hugoldun. Like many mythical creatures of Earth, the hugoldun is a hybrid creature, with traits of sloth and deer. While elements of this folklore may be inspired by demons or pure imagination, one librarian naturalist was shown the skull of a hugoldun, and noted many similarities to the ghlanos, a giant chalicothere from Ni’Khar. Descriptions of them varied, but since most agreed on a similar appearance to the ghlanos, only smaller and brown or sandy fur, most considered them a real animal. Later librarian expeditions circumnavigating the planet and surveying its fauna noted a species of ghlanos in Arvel’s western forests. In the late 1800’s, Assembly surveys finally encountered the same animal.