Pretenguins

Pretenguins are flightless and aquatic sparrowgulls which evolved in the early Ultimocene, but speciated most rapidly during the ocean age. They are a sister clade to the glacier- and sea ravens, with both groups originating from a seagull-like ancestor in the Late Pangeacene. Though all sparrowgulls share a common gull-like ancestor at the end-Thermocene boundary, the ancestors of this modern lineage secondarily adapted to live near water from an intermediate terrestrial ancestor more closely resembling the chatteravens, which are their next closest relatives. Though very closely resembling earth penguins, as wing-propelled swimmers with mainly black and white pelage and awkward upright stance, pretenguins tend to be more brightly decorated. Their knees are external of their body in all except the two most massive species, and the ankle is still elongated, which lets most of them walk much better than true penguins, and they are also considerably smarter, being social and cooperative predators like all of their related flying species. While sea ravens and chatteravens are aggressive, however, pretenguins are playful and mischievous, doing many things for no reason except that it is fun to do them, and are rarely aggressive except when defending offspring at the nest site. Pretenguins often slide down icebergs on their bellies or their backs, juggle pebbles on their flippers, toss balls of snow at each other, and play-wrestle with each other even long after adulthood. In the water they jump and spin athletically and mirror one another’s behavior sequences, and interspecies play is common with other willing animals. Many pretenguins, especially juveniles, are very tame and will initiate play with almost any animal that doesn’t pose a threat to them including porplets, young daydreamers, and thalassic gravediggers. The highly social nature of these birds has resulted in the co-evolution of one species with the sea stewards over several million years, and subsequently its total adaptation to live among them as both a pet and a working animal.

There are about fifteen species of pretenguin in the late Ocean age, and they exhibit a very wide range of body size. The pygmy pretenguin is only six pounds and scarcely 1.5 feet in height and is one of only two species that spends all of its life in freshwater, found inland upon the Meridian islands. On the other end of the scale, both the lesser and greater snake-necked pretenguins are giants that can exceed one thousand pounds, the greater weighing up to 1,500. Most other species are somewhere in the middle, though skewing toward the smaller end of the spectrum, at 30-450 lbs. Nearly all pretenguins are hypercarnivores, though there is a notable exception, and most feed on pelagic fish, though the two biggest species feed on molluscs and benthic species. Even though they primarily feed on animals, many pretenguins also consume algae and the seeds of aquatic grasses. The ptarmenguin takes this tendency further than others and is more herbivorous than not. Native to several recently-exposed large islands in the western icebox seaway that are inaccessible to colonization by land animals, it is the least aquatic species and feeds mainly upon plant life that grows in the islands’ freshwater streams, a habitat that totally lacks non-flying predators. Unlike the pygmy pretenguin, it has grown large to reduce the threat posed by winged carnivores and stands taller than a man. It is not a specialized swimmer any longer, as its height now allows it to forage for food by wading and dipping its head beneath the water much like a moose.

Pretenguins, as sparrowgulls, are primitive nesters. This means they lack an egg-pouch as in the trunkos and are incapable of live-birth like bumblets or metamorphs. They lay hard-shelled eggs and among all living birds only the softbills/tentacle birds also retain these. Sparrowgulls - along with the snowscrounger - are the last birds which nest and incubate their eggs out of their body, though some seraphs brood their pupating offspring in a similar fashion. Generally nesting is done on bare ground, sometimes in grass, and the nest is a simple scrape sometimes lined with rocks. Snake-necked pretenguins are so heavy that they must be very careful how they lay over their eggs lest they crack, and incubate them underneath their necks while laying down; the female plucks out a large patch of feathers here so that the eggs and chicks are directly in contact with her skin while incubating. Nearly all pretenguins form at least seasonally monogamous pair bonds, and as food is generally abundant enough in the sea that additional helper adults, as exist in the social groups of many land-living relatives, are not usually necessary. The snake-necks are the exception here, for they are so large that they take as long as six years to be sexually mature. In the interim adults rely on at least one helper to successfully nest. In first-time breeders it is usually a sibling one or two years younger, while otherwise they are immature subadult offspring. The helper assists the father in taking turns providing food to the mother, who is bound to the land and cannot swim long while brooding her eggs or chick until the plucked patch of feathers on her breast grows back, lest she chill in the cold water.

Sparrowgulls in general show strongly-developed behavioral patterns to pick up and carry their eggs and nestlings if they are threatened, which were absent in nearly all birds before them, but for some pretenguins this ability is reduced - snake-necked pretenguins and the ptarmenguin are too large and ungainly to manage the feat. Only one group retains wings still equipped with a dry patch of bare skin on the inner wrist specifically to carry eggs, the smallest species that comprise the genus Cassitamergus, though those in Pinguimimus can also pick up its eggs and young when under distress albeit with a less precise grip. The largest species however are more restricted to their chosen nest sites for the duration of incubation and are vulnerable to bad weather, changing environment (such as flooding of the nest), and predation than other sparrowgulls. For the ptarmenguin, a relative scarcity of predators seems responsible for its loss of dexterity while the massive snake-necks compensate for by living in large colonies and aggressively protecting their young, with the mother sitting with them for months and not leaving their side until they are well-grown.

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