Dubit

* Male
* Female
* Juvenile Male
* Juvenile Female

## Creature Compendium

All amphibian, and other creatures with multistage age groups will have both juvenile and baby versions.

## General Info

The dubit is a large amphibian, and are crepuscular. Adults and juveniles are semi-aquatic, while the tadpoles are fully aquatic. Resting in lakes, dubit graze on the underwater plants, but will occasionally catch and eat anything that drinks from their lakes. Dubit live in pods, and prefer to eat around each other, except for when they are eating meat. They are mostly aquatic, but will go on land to travel to new lakes, when their lake dries up. Or when a carcass is near their lake. Dubit are very bulky and large, and their arms and legs are very muscular, mostly to support their heavy bodies. But they can also deliver a powerful swipe with their arm, or a kick. Both dubit can be pretty aggressive, and hate it when other creatures get near their lake. Because of how heavy they are, dubit cannot swim very well. Instead they walk along the lakebed, but when they need to breathe, or if they want to see above the surface, they jump off the lakebed start floating. They cannot float for long though, as they will start to slowly sink after a while. They can also propel themselves with their back legs once at the surface, and when they sink they immediately bounce back up, when chasing other creatures at the surface. Males have a large fin on their backs, that they use to intimidate rival males, or predators. Females are larger than the males, and are much more aggressive, with lots of testosterone in their systems. Dubit can live to be 90 years old, but the oldest known dubit is around 174 years old, and still going strong. Dubit communicate through deep croaks, during mating season. But usually make deep grunts and the young can screech when scared. Dubit lay around 7 to 17 eggs in smaller ponds near the lake, as sort of a nursery for the tadpoles.

## Juvenile Behavior

When dubit are born they are small almost fish like things, called tadpoles. Dubit tadpoles are fully aquatic and have external gills, which help them breath in the water. These tadpoles eat underwater plants, fish, and sometimes even small creatures that come to drink from their nursery pond. Dubit tadpoles, have also been seen cannibalizing smaller, weaker tadpoles. Dubit stay tadpoles until 3 years old.

Once young dubit grow their arms and legs, and lose their gills, they move to the main lake, where all the adult dubit stay. They will stay by their father, watching what he does, and mimic him. This is how they learn the skills they will need to survive. Young dubit, usually stay in the water longer than the adults, only following the adults if they have too. Young dubit also have to be careful around the their mother and the other females, as they will eat the young dubit if they remain unsupervised for too long.

Once dubit grow reach sexual maturity at 14 years, most will stay with the rest of the pod, but when the lake gets to crowded, they will leave and search for a new pod to join. This is also how dubit pods gain new members, so not everyone at a lake is related.

## Behavior

Dubit are usually pretty chill around each other, but they are very aggressive towards other creatures. An average dubit pod has about 30 members, but it mostly depends on how big the lake they are staying at is. They will sometimes socialize with each other, but they usually are more focused on eating. When one dubit catches a creature, they have to eat it fast, before the other dubit notice, or else a frenzy will start. This is partially why dubit will swallow creatures whole in one big bite. Dubit live in pretty tropical areas, so they dont have to worry about a very cold winter. But if it gets really cold, they will be much more sluggish, and sleep a lot more often. Because they are crepuscular, dubit are most active during dawn and dusk, which is when they will begin feeding. During the afternoon and night, they are usually taking naps.

## Competition

Dubit don't have much competition due to their large size, and the fact that they are omnivores. The only true competition they get is from each other, for food.

## Hunting Instinct

Dubit don't actively hunt, as they don't need to. But when an opportunity arises, they will take it. What happens is they are usually just resting at the surface, when a creature comes by to drink, then they propel themselves and snatch the creature off the the side of the lake.

## Danger Response

Dubit don't have too many things to fear when in their lake, but when on land they can be vulnerable to large predators, and especially large packs of medium sized predators. But when face with danger they can still be dangerous, as their limbs are very powerful, and when things get tough, they can launch their short, but powerful tongue out as a last effort. These tongues are not very good at catching prey though.

## Courting and Reproduction

When breeding season comes, which is usually during the summer. Dubit are hyper aggressive, and snap at each other very often. Males will fight with each other in hopes a female will notice. And if he proves his skills as a powerful male, the female will mate with him. Females also do a lot of fighting, but mostly because their testosterone levels are extra high during the summer. When dubit mate, the female lays the eggs immediately, and the male will then scoop them up into his mouth and take them to a nearby pond, which will act as the nursery. All males do this at around the same time, so when the tadpoles hatch (4 months after being laid) they will start to cannibalize each other, until only large ones remain. The male dubit will keep tabs on the nursery, but not actively stay by it. But they will still protect the tadpoles and eggs if a predator does show up. Its only once the tadpoles grow into juveniles, that the males actively watch and protect their young at all times. Females will only see their children as food though. Dubit are a polygynandrous species, meaning both males and females will have multiple partners. Polygynandry is different from promiscuity however. In promiscuity both males and females will have multiple partners, but they dont really select their partners based on quality, so they will mate indiscriminately. Meanwhile in polygynandry both males and females have multiple partners, but still have the quality-based discrimination, so they still have to impress potential mates.

## Miscellaneous Info

* Dubit can be used as both a plural and singular adjective.
* Dubit were the first amphibians and omnivores to be discovered and now represent Zemdros's amphibians as a whole. Not omnivores though, a different creature takes that spot.
* The dubit is one of 5 crowned amphibian species. None of them are related, but they all evolved convergently, meaning despite not being related, they evolved in a similar way.

## Previous Iterations

The history of all of my creatures spans back to August 14th 2017, starting with the gnark, on my old DeviantArt page (Which I no longer use). And no matter how far I get, I will always look back and remember the humble beginnings! So lets appreciate the original drawings that made my creatures the way they are today!

The original dubit, that was replaced with an improved version [Publication Date: August/15/2017][Publication Date: August/15/2017][Publication Date: August/15/2017]The only change was the eyes [Publication Date: August/15/2017][Publication Date: Jul/24/2019][Publication Date: Jul/24/2019][Publication Date: Not made public][Publication Date: Not made public]