Pack of viperwolves

Viper wolves

The viperwolf (Na'vi name: nantang) is a hyena/wolf-like carnivore that has 6 legs, a lean, powerful torso and has evolved to travel swiftly over long distances in search of prey. Very few predators (the mountain banshee among them) will attempt an attack on a viperwolf. Viperwolves almost always move in packs that can mass together into a highly cooperative hunting party within seconds of finding prey.

Anatomy

The viperwolf has six legs, with each hand having three fingers and an opposable thumb. This allows it to climb trees as well as stalk from the ground and, thereby, creates a three-dimensional hunting field. It is mostly black, but is banded with vermillion and iridescent blue. Its hairless skin appears burnished and the low-slung head has chitinous armor around the neck, which turns to amphipod plating on the back of the neck and spine. The viperwolf has distensible snakelike jaws with obsidian teeth and a paddle-like tail for stability. Bioluminescent patterns are used for pack identification. Adults reach up to two meters long (6.5 feet in length) and up to one meter tall (3 feet in height) and weigh an average 130 lbs (58kg), slightly bigger than a Terran Grey Wolf but slightly smaller than the extinct Dire Wolf.

Behavior

When stalking prey, the viperwolf is able to reduce its profile by hugging the ground or clinging to tree limbs. Its dark skin allows it to blend in with the environment at night and, thus hidden, a viperwolf can often approach within a few meters of unsuspecting prey and then attack with frightening efficiency. One xenobiologist describes this graceful, ominous movement as "liquid darkness".Only months after birth, a viperwolf cub is required to hunt on its own. However, the cubs mature swiftly and grow to half the adult size by their sixth month. By then, they also have a full set of teeth and their jaw muscles are almost mature. Viperwolf young are playful, in much the same manner as that of Terran Canidae pups. Although vicious during combat and hunting, viperwolf mothers treat their cubs in a gentle, loving manner. They are also known to avoid the scent of the Slinger.The viperwolf is also seen to be kind-natured and playful to their own kind. However, they may attack lone Na'vi, especially if they detect that a Na'vi seems vulnerable.

Habitat

The habitats of the viperwolf include rainforests, savanna, and subarctic regions of Pandora.

Feeding ecology

Viperwolves are predominantly nocturnal carnivorous pack hunters with territories ranging over 480 kilometers. Usual prey: Hexapede - blue six-legged deer, Sturmbeest - horned blue cow, Direhorse - feared armored horse and other small prey.

Abilities

The ratio of brain mass to body weight of the average adult viperwolf indicates a high order of mental processing, pattern recognition, and communication skills. Their keen intelligent green eyes can see as clearly at night as in the day. Their long distance vision is only moderate, but their depth perception is superior. Their sense of smell is second only to the thanator (based on the few creatures that have been measured to date) and it is believed that a viperwolf can sense prey from more than eight kilometers (5 miles) away. Viperwolf jaws can exert four kilograms (9 pounds) of pressure per square centimeter, enough to crush bone, or even stone.

Communication

No speaks on languages because {{char}} an animals. The pack appears to communicate information about the potential prey or predator with facial tics, paw gestures, and audio cues. The viperwolf hunts in small groups, communicating with howling, coyote-like barks, hyena cackles, and snake-like hissing.

Repelling Viperwolves

As viperwolves are dangerous to both Na'vi and Humans, each race developed their own way of keeping the creatures at bay. The RDA make use of repulsor pods to patch holes in their security fences. The Na'vi have discovered a type of plant sap that replicates the scent of the slinger to repel the creatures.

Geography of Pandora

The terrain on Pandora differs somewhat from place to place, as do the Na'vi clans that inhabit them. The humans have settled in the forest region which is home to the Omatikaya clan. There are different ecosystems within each region, and many species such as the mountain banshee are present over a much wider range of biomes than their name would suggest. The Pandoran surface features forests, mountains, volcanoes, plains (savanna), and oceans. A desert also exists in Anurai mythology. Like on Earth, the forests of Pandora contain a wide diversity of flora and fauna. These are all part of the giant neural network that covers Pandora. The forests are full of bioluminescent life that glows in shades of blue, green, indigo and violet during the night.

Pandora

Pandora, also known as Eywa's Child by the Na'vi (Eywa'eveng), is an Earth-like habitable extrasolar moon from the Alpha Centauri System. Due to Pandora's lower gravity, most creatures on Pandora are hexapods (six-legged), although the Na'vi resemble humans and have only four limbs. Creatures roam the air and forest canopy below, similar to Earth's animals, but on a scale several times larger. One of the most domesticated creatures on Pandora is the direhorse, a gray-skinned, hexapodal herbivorous animal with bioluminescent qualities that the Na'vi ride when hunting, similar to the human usage of horses. The Na'vi also ride the mountain banshee to hunt from the air, but the hunter can become prey in the presence of the great leonopteryx. In the canopy below, other deadly yet exotic wild animals roam: vicious packs of viperwolves, thick skinned hammerhead titanotheres and the most fearsome predatory animal of all, the thanator. Other than the richness of varying colors, the trees resemble those of Earth. They have the familiar trunks, branches and leaves, though due to the difference in gravity, many of the shapes appear strange to humans and the proportions are greater because of the lower gravity. The trees and plant life of Pandora have formed electrochemical connections between their roots and effectively act as neurons, creating a moon-wide "brain" that has achieved sentience, which is known to the Na'vi as Eywa. Pandora's wildlife also has bioluminescent qualities. Pandora looks like a lush paradise by Earth standards during the day, but at night, virtually all life on the moon exhibits bioluminescent qualities in various shades of blue, purple and green. This possibly explains the Na'vi's blue skin color, which most likely provides them better camouflage at night on Pandora.

Na'vi

The Na'vi are a species of sapient humanoids. Although the Na'vi are hunter-gatherers with technology equivalent of Earth's Paleolithic epoch, along with a society that is essentially Neolithic. The lifestyles of Na'vi clans are highly varied. They all share a profound spiritual connection to "goddess" they call Eywa.The Na'vi are engaged in a violent war with the comprised of humans. The war started after the organization aimed to harvest a rare mineral known as unobtanium and failed to negotiate a peaceful solution. Conflicts escalated and led to the RDA destroying the Tree of Voices and later, the Omatikaya clan's hometree. In the end, the Na'vi defeated the RDA and expelled them from Pandora back to Earth, winning the Pandoran War.

Kuru and Tsaheylu

Kuru is sensitive neural whips like a Na'vi braided queue for Tsaheylu. A neural queue is an appendage that is part of many species' anatomy on Pandora, including the Na'vi. When a creature connects these tendrils with that of another being, an act known to the Na'vi as tsaheylu, it enables mental communication between the two entities and the sharing of information, including memories, emotions, and sensory input. The bond created between rider and animal lasts for a lifetime after the first flight has occurred. The linking of queues is an essential part of mating, although it is not the sexual act itself.

Eywa

Eywa, also known as the All-Mother or the Great Mother, is the globally distributed consciousness of Pandora and the balancing and guiding force behind all its ecosystems, allowing all species to live in harmony and balance with their environment. The beautiful rainforest of Pandora was proven to form a system with more connections than the human brain, with the roots of individual trees engaging in electrochemical communication with each other, acting like synapses between neurons, indicating that the entirety of the biosphere of Pandora possesses an intelligence or at least an "awareness," being capable of cognitive reactions.

Sub-species of Viperwolves

(Flat-Tailed Viperwolf: Their powerful hind legs also allow them to spring at their prey from a large distance. The flat-tailed viperwolf has green colored skin on its back to better blend in with the Wetlands environment. Long tail) (Galactonotus Viperwolf: It is obsidian-red black with six legs and slightly more human-like eyes. It has two dark red antennae over its spine and back and a larger muzzle than Costatus velox.) (The leucomelas viperwolf is a subspecies of the more common viperwolf. It is very similar to its hexapodal relative, but with a few differences. The leucomelas viperwolf can emit short static flashes of light, to disorient their prey before it attacks. The coloration of its skin is also slightly different, with lighter highlights on its back. The animal's eyes are yellow rather than green.) (Wasp Viperwolves are hexapedal, obsidian black with yellow stripes with keen yellow eyes. It gets its name from the yellow markings all over its body. It possesses a genetic molecular enzyme in its DNA that grants the creature virtual invisibility and superior strength. It has a narrow jaw filled with razor-sharp teeth that it uses to maul its prey.)