Hello all, I'm new here I came over from Minisculpture to enter this competition and..... well I got quite into it really.
Without further delay here is my creation- The Ghaar.
By
andrewjohnmay at 2010-06-11
Adult Ghaar
By
andrewjohnmay at 2010-06-11
My initial sketch
By
andrewjohnmay at 2010-06-11
A young Ghaar
By
andrewjohnmay at 2010-06-11
Tail
The Ghaar is a large semi aquatic species that dwells in forest rivers and the great lakes in the warmest regions of Anyaral. Ghaar stand at around 2.5 meters at their tallest point at the flank.
Ghaar live in family groups typically numbering five individuals and consisting of one bull, its mate and their young. As a rule only one family will ever be found on any one stretch of river except when fish swarm in the autumn drawing families across land to the fish’s ancestral spawning sites. A calf is born every year, a twin birth being fairly common, calves leaving the group after two years. The only time Ghaar will be seen in very large numbers is each spring when mature individuals, having left the family group leave the forests across the land in a great migration to congregate in the largest lakes of Anyaral to seek their mate.
Ghaar are heavily built animals, both muscular and blubber laden. Their skin is thick and a dark brown grey. It covers their bodies in folds and crevices which largely disappear towards the end of autumn as they put on reserves of fat to see them through the winter and the migration of the young adults.
There is little difference between Ghaar of each gender, the bulls having only a wider blubber packed tail and a when mature a pale throat that is displayed by lifting his head in warning or for his courtship display. The young are born with a shorter jaw and lips for grasping their mothers teat disappearing as their mouth elongates, their diet is also supplemented with nourishing water weeds in early life before their adult teeth are fully developed. Mature Ghaar have a long pointed snout lined with a multitude of long, fine and vey sharp teeth. Beneath its chin there is a sense organ used for detecting the electrical field of its prey in the river bed. The primary prey of Ghaar are small eel-like fish and long mudworms that feed in the detritus accumulating in deep layers on the bottom of wide forest rivers. In feeding a Ghaar uses its powerful hind legs to dive its snout deep into the humus of the river bed, emerging mouth laden with writhing prey captured by its needle teeth. When the fish spawn each year Ghaar hunt cooperatively herding large shoals together before powering through them, jaws wide, throats hugely distended with prey on the other side.
Ghaar are prized as food by the Devanu. They are hunted in spring as the young adults emerge from the forests in their great migration or by brave hunting parties in late autumn deep in the forest. Autumn hunting is not without great risk, the Ghaar are very dangerous whilst in the water. A Devanu hunting party able to slay a Ghaar bull will be hailed as heroes, returning laden with flesh and the beast's wide tail, a rare delicacy.
The Fubarnii also make extensive and more practical use of the Ghaar. During the spring migration Fubarnii groups will separate a number from the herd, running them down from atop their Enuk mounts, culling being carried out from the relative safe distance of a lance length. The Fubarnii utilise the carcasses for various means. The hides of the young mature Ghaar is collected for curing into durable leather, the stored fat on the haunches and tail is rendered down into an oil used for lighting lamps, fuel and to a lesser degree cooking by rural Fubarnii. The meat is cut into thin strips and hung over the smoking embers of the fat rendering fires to dry and cure into provisions for Fubarnii soldiers. The multitudinous teeth of the Ghaar are also harvested providing plentiful raw materials for pins, needles and other staples of Fubarnii haberdashers.
