Swamp Wumpo 

A flashy trunko with a striking display structure, the swamp wumpo is a common sight in the soglands. Despite its highly recognizable appearance, however, this species exchanges genes with others in its genus in a complicated way.

Wumpos are doing well in the hothouse age, with the Proboscirostrus genus now comprising many distinct species which are often physically unique from one another, but remain genetically close enough to produce fertile offspring. Indeed the genus is a veritable taxonomic nightmare, with many blurry edges and clines and hybridization events that make species boundaries very difficult to discern in many species. Some trunko species, or species complexes, seem to have adapted to embrace this, and they exist as composites of several other species, which may mate with any one of them and so spread genes across a very wide population of animals. A few, however, have evolved specialized appearances to make themselves highly distinct from all other species as a way to reduce cross-breeding. One of the most remarkable is the swamp wumpo.

Swamp wumpos are sogland specialists found across Serinarcta's wettest regions. They are adapted to thrive in the warm, murky microcosm within submerged hummocks of grass and roots of this biome; their lanky legs keep their bodies out of the water most of the time, while their long trunks are dipped below the surface as they walk to catch small fish and invertebrates stirred up by their footsteps. Buried tubers, rich in carbohydrates, and the crunchy new growth of the grasses round out an omnivore's diet.

Many wumpos are super-social herd animals, but swamp wumpos - especially males - often feed alone and social groups of females and their young are otherwise small, just five to ten, and comprised of close relatives; different family groups rarely mingle, and herds are territorial of a given home range. Both sexes of this trunko species have a large, extendable dewlap on their throats, in front of the egg-pouch, which may have first arisen to dissipate heat in the hot climate where there is little shade, but now serves as a clear signal to other swamp wumpos for intraspecific communication, allowing them to recognize their own kind clearly and reduce crossing with other species. The dewlap is naturally pink-hued from carotenoid pigments the wumpo gets from crustaceans in its diet, but it can turn a brilliant crimson red when blood is flushed into it, showing its level of excitement. The reddest individuals are usually males, either displaying to females or one another as they compete for mating opportunities, but those of females can also turn bright when two herds meet and both wish to utilize the same feeding ground - those with the brightest, biggest displays are likely fitter, and will often stake claim without physical altercation. 

Though natural selection seems to be trying to keep the swamp wumpo from outcrossing, it still doesn't always work. While established herds of these animals are small, closely-bonded and shun outsiders, young males leave their natal groups early in life to seek out breeding partners elsewhere. Immature males, with small dewlaps and size inferior to dominant males that control territories containing the female herds, may instead breed with females of other more social species and still manage to produce hybrids. Hybrids are generally not accepted by swamp wumpo herds and so live with their other parent species, with which they may reproduce when they grow up. In this way swamp wumpos as a population give genes to other species, but do not generally receive them; swamp wumpos are mostly genetically pure, but other species that coexist with them carry small levels of their genes due to hybridization with wandering young males. Wumpos and their loose species boundaries demonstrate that nature is difficult to categorize in boxes, for it is often much more gray than black or white.