The Naribex

On South Anciska, a relatively new group of large canaries known as serestriders, which we last saw ten million years ago, are still achieving a great deal of success as the primary megafaunal browsers of the continent. They have begun to diversify in form and behavior, with some becoming the tallest birds ever to live while still others find success in an opposite way; evolving a much shorter stature due to the fusion of their growth plates very early in life versus their relatives, which means they reach their adult size even before sexual maturity (opposite to most serestriders which grow late into life.) These serestriders are true dwarves relative to their ancestors of ten million years ago and may only weigh a little over one hundred pounds, with a height at the head of about five to six feet. This renders them quite unable to reach the canopies of the forest trees, but they don’t need to. Known as naribex, they are alpine-specialists, using their shorter and stockier builds to keep their center of balance low and living on the scree slopes of sparsely vegetated mountainsides where few other herbivores live.

Their necks are relatively short, their faces very flat and and the beaks blunt, to crop short weeds right down to the rock they sprout from. Because they have few enemies and need to calculate long distance leaps between perches, their eyes have moved to the front of their heads, providing both binocular vision and a very strange appearance. The growth plates of their leg bones fuse very early in life, greatly reducing their height but giving them increased strength to withstand the rigors of leaping across the rocks. The naribex has four toes on each foot, and has repurposed the nearly vestigial hallux of the ancestral serestrider back into use as an additional gripping digit to hold onto the unstable ground, while the outer toe has also begun to splay and be able to turn outward to further provide stability. Like mountain goats, they move quickly and easily over steep terrain, with large, rough scales on their foot pads providing traction.

Mountain slopes are a cold environment, so the naribex is well-insulated against winter’s chill with a thick feathered coat. Food is also relatively scarce here and what can be found is often fibrous and not very nutritious, so to cope the naribex have retained a proportionally huge, fermenting stomach even as their body size has reduced, as well as evolved a lower rate of metabolism. Their feathers are very dark, allowing them absorb heat from the sun in the mornings instead of having to burn calories to become active, and after foraging they can lower their energy expenditure even further and enter a semi-torpid state to rest and digest their food during which they lie cryptically along the mountain in the shade of boulders, hiding from the few (and mostly airborne) predators likely to bother them at high altitude.

Though naribex live in groups for safety, there is little cohesion, virtually no longterm bonds between individuals, and neither a leader nor any care afforded to the younger individuals. Females descend to lower and warmer elevations in the spring to bury their eggs on a sunlit slope with loose soil and then return to their preferred higher slopes, leaving their young to develop via the heat of the ground. When the chicks hatch they are fully independent and able to find their own food, but vulnerable to predators until they can climb to relative safety high up on the mountain where only a few larger flying birds pose any threat. If threatened before they find refuge on higher ground, young naribex are capable of climbing trees as well, utilizing the large wing spike on their wrists like the gaffs on a lineman's boots, to dig into the bark and climb to safety.