Red-Footed Clubhog

This voracious hypercarnivore is a surprising thing to have evolved from the hogtrok. Looming around a meter in height, this menacing creature is one of the largest terrestrial carnivores of its time. While it no longer has any deadly poison, the strong genes for its warning colors have not entirely faded away. Its faintly countershaded body helps it blend in with the forest, and its bright red feet look like minidaggers or rubyshrooms from a distance. Its pink leg fin is shrivelled and faded, no longer serving any function. The back eye is also smaller, as the clubhog does not need to watch for predators of any kind. Their beak is shorter and sharper, enabling it to easily carve out chunks of flesh from its prey.

Truly the most unique things about this creature must be its club-like arms, which it uses to shatter the chitin and bones of its prey. For smaller creatures, it lifts its arms up and slams them down on the back of its prey, preventing it from escaping. When it is hunting larger prey, it will extend its clubs outwards in a manner similar to the Terran mantis shrimp. Despite its powerful weaponry, asterzoans are too small and agile to be worth its time. While the clubhog does face competition in the form of the mitted gnaw, the gnaw usually steers clear of the clubhog due to its height.

Clubhogs are solitary and very territorial. If two clubhogs of the same sex spot each other, a fight usually ensues. A fight between two clubhogs usually only ends when one clubhog runs away, but plenty of encounters have led to a battle to the death. Male clubhogs are polygamous, and will try to mate as many times as they can throuought their lives. However, the females are not easily impressed, and will only mate with large, healthy-looking males. If the female clubhog is not impressed, it will often kill the male. Juvenile clubhogs look similar to hogtroks and have a brightly-colored fin, but they lose most of their color as they age. Baby clubhogs are too small to hunt most of the prey items that the adults eat, so they feed on small creatures like terrestrial knightworms instead.