Northern Horned Hare

Kareesh Valendar

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Northern Horned Hare

« on: 29 June 2011, 08:54:03 »

Categorization: Animals, Smaller -> Rodent

Overview:

The northern horned hare is part of the rabbit family, but is highly unique due to the deer-like antlers growing between their two long ears. They can be found in Northern Sarvonia in places where it is cold for most of the year. Their fur is cyhalloi snow white with a few being peppered with eophran brown. Because there are so many in their litters, and they are sexually mature when they turn a year old, the population of the Northern Horned Hares can be very large in a small area.

Appearance:

The northern horned hare is bigger than its cousin, the southern horned hare. It stands almost as tall as an average human male: one ped, one fore, and two palmspans from the ground to the top of their ears. Their antlers, or horns, are adlemirene brown. The antlers don't grow taller than their ears, but occasionally a buck, a male of the species, has been seen with abnormally long antler.

The eyes of the hare appear to come in two colours: eophran brown or teki red.

Special Abilities:

Territory:

As their name implies, the northern horned hare lives primarily in Northern Sarvonia, most notably the Yllon Woods, Cartashian Woods, Mantle Woods, and several other forests in the north. They prefer to stay within the forests, probably due to the fact they use the trees to help shed their antlers.

Habitat/Behavior:

Unlike others in the rabbit family, the horned hare does not make a burrow underneath the ground. Instead, they create small hutches out of the branches of trees and other vegetation. First, a hare digs a small hole into the ground only about a fore and one palmspan deep. Then they build the hatch around the hole, dragging the limbs of trees and other various vegetation to the desired location with their teeth and making the fit perfect by using their front legs. When completed, these hatches look like small hills within the forest. Often, warrens, or a group of hares living together, will also build tunnels to connect the hutches using the same technique.

Because of their size, the horned hare has very few predators. Due to this fact, the northern horned hare has become more aggressive than their smaller, more docile southern cousins. When their personal area is threatened, the horned hare will utter a high-pitched growl while clacking its teeth together. Its ears will also go flat upon its head. If further provoked, its head will come down and it will attempt to skewer the unfortunate attacker upon its antlers. It has been noted that the male hares are often more eager to fight than the females.

Diet:

Only vegetation is in the hare's diet, although in the far reaches of the north, they can be hard to find. The hares have found often inventive ways to dig for roots under the ground, as well as eating the shoots of young trees.

Mating:

The mating season starts in the fourth or fifth month, depending on how quickly the spring comes to the north. Family groups from the previous year are broken up as the young ones go off to find mates of their own. The female usually is the one to mark out her territory, marking the edges to ward off other females, as well as to attract a mate. The males are the ones to go off and search for their mate. They do not usually mate with just a female, but tend to mate with a couple in a nearby area.

Sometimes, two males come upon a single female’s territory. When this happens, a display of force is used to decide which ones wins the chance to mate with her. First, they stand a ped or two away from each other, sizing the competition up. They emit a couple of growls and paw at the earth, trying to intimidate the other. If one doesn’t back down, they slowly approach each other, making small circles as they do so. Suddenly, one will charge the other, his head bent low, antlers pointed towards his intended victim. If the other is experienced, he will lower his antlers and engage the attacker in a fight which often leads to bloodshed. If the one who is being attacked instead hops to the side, he is viewed as being weak, and he must leave the area, or risk being killed.

These fights can take hours, depending on how determined and experienced the fighters are. Sometimes, their antlers can become locked permanently, the pair either having to somehow break the antlers or die, usually from starvation.

Once the mating has occurred, two months pass by before the litter is born. 5-8 is the normal number of leverets in a litter, though more have been recorded. Unlike other furred creatures, Northern Horned Hare leverets are born with their eyes open and with a coat of fur. No horns can be seen, however. The young leverets grow very fast. Within a year, their antlers are full grown, and they sexually mature. They leave their place of birth and the females go to find territory of their own, while the males roam the area, trying to find mates of their own.

Myth/Lore/Origins: (Optional)

Researchers: (Optional)

Usages: (Optional)

There is a clan Of Osther-Oc Orcs who live in the Yllon woods who use the hares for various purposes. The fur is used in clothing purposes. Northern Horned Hare meat is said to be very delicious when cooked in a stew.

Even the antlers of the hare are used. The Osther-Ocs view the horns as a sign of fertility, as the hares have large litters at a time. Whenever a hare is caught for food, the horns are ground up into a type of powder and mixed in with food or drink. This powder has made its way to various other tribes and clans due to the belief in its wondrous power.

Anything Else: (Optional)


« Last Edit: 05 June 2013, 09:03:45 by Kareesh Valendar »	Logged

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Ta`lia of the Seven Jewels

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Re: Northern Horned Hare

« Reply #1 on: 29 June 2011, 15:17:36 »

LOL, Kareesh, cool idea with those antlers

one ped, one fore.. (no 1, 2, )

Look for the territory of the caracal, it might be fond of your hares.


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Azhira Styralias

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Re: Northern Horned Hare

« Reply #2 on: 30 June 2011, 00:12:42 »

Be sure to be more specific in the territory of the Caaehl'heroth peninsula. That narrows down where the Yllon Woods are.

This is a nice animal as it could provide meat for several animals in the area, including the orcs (who aren't animals, but would feed nonetheless).


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Coren FrozenZephyr

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Re: Northern Horned Hare

« Reply #3 on: 30 June 2011, 02:41:49 »

@ Azhira

Their rabbit holes must be rather large! How do they manage to squeeze in through the entrance with those antlers?


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Ta`lia of the Seven Jewels

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Re: Northern Horned Hare

« Reply #4 on: 30 June 2011, 02:51:28 »

Our type has no holes!


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Coren FrozenZephyr

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Re: Northern Horned Hare

« Reply #5 on: 30 June 2011, 04:01:53 »

Quote

Unlike others in the rabbit family, the horned hare does not make a burrow underneath the ground. Instead, they create small hutches out of the branches of trees and other vegetation.

Ah yes!


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Kareesh Valendar

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Re: Northern Horned Hare

« Reply #6 on: 30 June 2011, 10:30:54 »

Whoa, hey! Comments!

@Ta'lia: The picture presented by Azhira shows that these aren't exactly mine. They are based upon the fictional jackalope, which Wikipedai has a great article on.

@Azhira: Yeah, the idea popped into my head that, not only would the orcs use the meat, but perhaps the antlers and fur as well, since they are quite large. I'd love to hear suggestions.

@Coren: I actually found out while doing research on hares that, unlike rabbits, hares don't actually burrow. And, they're not even in the same family. Hares aren't rodents! Go figure...

Thanks for all the comments. I'll have to make a second one eventually for the Southern Horned Hare, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Oh! Question! I know this was talked about somewhere before, but do I capitalize the name of the beast throughout the entire entry, or no? Can't remember what was decided....


« Last Edit: 30 June 2011, 10:39:14 by Kareesh Valendar »	Logged

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Bard Judith

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Re: Northern Horned Hare

« Reply #7 on: 30 June 2011, 10:47:09 »

Brilliant, girl! I love the jackalope and your hare is just a wonderful nod to that design. Please tell me the males use their antlers to compete for females AND box on their hindlegs? And it strikes me that the shed antlers would make wonderful love potion ingredients, stamina ointment, and lust spell reagents.... as a combination of stag and rabbit I'm sure these animals are infamous for, um, virility.


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Athviaro Shyu-eck-Silfayr

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Re: Northern Horned Hare

« Reply #8 on: 30 June 2011, 15:19:17 »

You capitalise the name of the subject of the entry throughout but not the name of any other things - eg., if you have a predator, don't use capitals - except those you would always capitalise -eg., Northern Sarvonia.

Ath


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Re: Northern Horned Hare

« Reply #9 on: 11 July 2011, 05:06:29 »

Great idea Kareesh. grin

I think I saw a Jackalope or two myself during my time in Colorado.

Even though this is obviously patterned after a funny urban legend, I think it is a great addition to Santharia. I had the same feeling as Bard that these antlers must be there for a reason. I too thought they must be used by the males for fighting. However use your creativity perhaps there are other uses for those antlers by the animals themslves and by those who hunt it.


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Kareesh Valendar

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Re: Northern Horned Hare

« Reply #10 on: 11 July 2011, 09:52:58 »

I did have the idea of them using them to fight during mating season, as well as having the northern variety more aggressive and using them against actual threats (mentioned in the Habitat/Behavior section).

Haven't forgotten about this guy. Just been really busy and it's looking like I won't get much done the next couple of weeks, but I still have some notes jotted down and in the back of my head.


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Artimidor Federkiel

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Re: Northern Horned Hare

« Reply #11 on: 11 August 2011, 02:12:27 »

Hope we can make some progress with this one eventually, Kareesh, as the picture of our little fellow is already complete by now thanks to Seeker as part of the Grinch illustration (see here)!


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Kareesh Valendar

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Re: Northern Horned Hare

« Reply #12 on: 14 August 2011, 10:20:49 »

Looks like now I have to finish this one. lol

My busy season is over, but work has been crazy. Our regional VP is coming for a visit and since our manager has been at a conference for the past week, it's been me and one other person pretty much running the store. Craaaaaazy. Also doesn't help matters that I'm 14 weeks preggers. lol


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Kareesh Valendar

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Re: Northern Horned Hare

« Reply #13 on: 27 May 2013, 12:00:59 »

Bumping this guy up to the front page so I can find him easier. My hard drive on my laptop crashed, but thankfully we got everything backed up on an external, so hopefully I can get this guy done. I'm trying to get back into writing, so maybe this will jump-start those writing juices.