Pincepok
The Pincepok, named after its pince-nez-like markings, is a peaceful, social, usually slow-moving, big-eyed, cute-looking, largely herbivorous fauna that always seems to be smiling. Populations whose only predator is the Tabbypard (which rarely bothers to eat such small prey) and those which have no predators at all (such as Illegal-Sci-Dealer Temperate Watershed) are especially “friendly”, having less fear of unfamiliar, large organisms. Pincepoks are very similar to a muskrat in its small size, habitat, lifestyle, most of its diet, and prolific breeding. It is semiaquatic, living in burrows partially covered by flora along streams, riverbanks or large ponds. Although they frequently forage in the shallower ends of ponds and small lakes, they breed and nest only on land.
Physiology & Diet
Pincepoks are purpleflora specialists. Not being especially good at digesting tough, grass-like flora, they prefer tender new growth and easily-digested flora.
Pincepoks have smaller, more streamlined body than their ancestors, helping them burrow and swim. Pincepoks have fewer spikes, and those that remain are smaller. The first two spikes on its middle segment are distinctively coattail-like in how closely-spaced they are. Its flatter underside, and the position of its middle and hind legs almost underneath its body are reminiscent of a duck’s adaptations.
Its middle legs are specialized for digging, its front legs for grasping, and its hind legs for swimming. However, it’s still capable of using each of its legs for different sorts of tasks. For example, it may desperately paddles with its front and middle legs to swim forwards and escape a predator, and only switch to its specialized legs when not stressed. Oddly, due to the articulation of its legs, it swims backwards when it only uses its back pair. Even stranger, it has a blind spot directly behind it, so whenever it moves straight backwards, it can't see where it's going.
Despite its semiaquatic habits, its hind fins are actually useless in swimming. They work largely as mating displays and as a form of communication.
Its shell repels both water and dirt, although clumps of riverside debris can still get stuck to its body anyway. Although its actual neck is less flexible than its ancestor's, its upright half is, overall, more flexible. It can even wobble a little from side-to-side like a metronome. Due to its particular body articulation, it has trouble grooming parts other than its its face, underside, and the front sides of its front legs.
Behavior and Socialization
Pincepoks are crepuscular to nocturnal; their exact activity times depend on the season, latitude, and the hunting times of local predators. When confronted by predators, it usually flees into the nearest body of water and paddles or wades away. Although rearing up onto its hind legs and flailing the claws on its middle legs often injures its predators, this is only a last resort.
Unlike muskrats, it cannot tolerate the cold, being an ectotherm with no means of generating heat. Although the subtropics have mild winters, icy days are still a major cause of death (especially where it has no predators). In the winter, adult Pincepoks can last for about a week without food, but if a spurt of cold weather lasts for too long, they shall die of starvation. As winter intensifies, they huddle within their burrows, emerging in the evening or very early morning for food.
It often occurs in small groups, whether a mated pair, a mated pair and its young, or a loose aggregation of conspecifics. Similarly to many birds and mammals, it spends a lot of time grooming others of its kind, even when it has no clear hygienic value. Pincepoks prefer to groom, forage with, huddle next to, and mate with less-aggressive individuals. They thus inadvertently select for peacefulness because the more aggressive individuals are slightly more likely to die of disease, cold, and predators.
Uniquely, many use wads of vegetation or sticks as grooming tools to remove debris lodged in soft articulation points. This is a learned behavior: the young typically figure out the use of vegetation as cleaning tools when they happen to brush debris off their faces using clumps of vegetation they’re eating. Despite their tool use, they are not especially intelligent, and they have little ability to learn by observation.