Description:
This is information about one of the magical animals living in Magifaunia; if you're confused, you might want to read about that first.
---Description--- The Greater Storm Grouse, also known as just Storm Grouse, Lightning Rooster and Rain Grouse, is the largest known member of all grouse species. The males average at about 12 hooves in height, and females at about 10 hooves, with wingspans of around twice their heights. They are quite heavy, weighing in at around 80 shoes for males and 65 shoes for females: their weight compared to their wingspan has led scientists to speculate that they are a magic-dependant flighted species. The species displays sexual dimorphism, with males, called cocks or roosters, being grey in color, with a lighter marking on their chest resembling a rain-cloud, and a blue feather crest on their heads and large, blue tail-feathers. The feather-crest can be laid flat, sticking out back a bit from their heads, or raised, at which point it resembles a crown. The tail feathers can similarly be laid flat or spread out to form a diamond-shaped fan. Females, called hens, are brown with a similar light rain-cloud marking on their chest, with dark brown splotches covering their backs and wings. Hens also have a dark brown iridescent marking on their heads, and slightly longer feathers on their necks; these can lay flat or be lifted just slightly. This is often done in pulses, to make the iridescent head-feathers shift in color. Greater Storm Grouses are magifauna, with strong affiliations with weather magic. Both sexes can summon and create storm clouds and rain at will, with cocks often using them to call down impressive lightning strikes as part of their courtship ritual. Hens also share this ability, but they tend to limit its use to smaller, more directed lightning strikes in defense of their chicks. Lifecycle: The average lifespan of a Greater Storm Grouse is around twenty-five years in the wild, and up to thirty-five in captivity, with hens generally living longer than roosters. The species has a breeding season which occurs in early spring, during which, males will perform an elaborate coutship ritual. They find a clearing, often the same one each season, and start with a high warbling sound as they walk around the clearing, stopping to make calls every few steps, with their crests raised and their wings held low. These clearings, the coutship grounds, are often only held by one male; the rest of the year, much time is spent on defending it. If more than one attepts to court at the same ground, fights usually breaks out --but it is not uncommon for older males to let younger watch and ignore them for as long as they do not begin the courtship ritual themselves. Once females arrive, the males ramp up the vocalizations, while raising their tails and spreading their wings to appear larger. At this point, each vocalization is also often accompanied by a large lightning strike. This courtship continues until the hens show interest back by turnig their tails to the rooster and making vocalizations of their own. After this, the males leave and have next to no interactions with females until the next year. The females go and prepare a nest --usually above ground, but they will take shelter in caves or large abandoned dens of other species if available. They lay a clutch of around ten to fifteen eggs, which hatches in late spring. The new chicks can walk and eat on their own after just a few hours, and will follow the hen as she leaves the nest to find food. The chicks grow quickly, and will usually live with and be cared for and protected by their mother for about two years. Females reach sexual maturity at this point, while males usually don't try to participate in the courtship ritual for another year or two. Only about one third of the laid eggs actually make it to adulthood though, with the others being lost due to egg-theives, predators and the mother favouring the strongest chicks if resources are low. Diet and habitat: Storm Grouse are obligate omnivores, whose main diet consists of berries, roots, insects, carrion and small game. Those which live near rivers often also hunt for fish, particularly during the salmon run. They could be found in mainly forests, both boreal and temparate, and shrubblands. A few populations live in more mountainous terrain, in which case their diet focuses a lot more on meat than their forest and shrubbland living relatives. The mountain-living populations used to be vastly outnumbered, but the threats which face the Storm grouse to do affect them quite as much, so there are now about as many living in mountains as there are in forests and shrubblands. Not because they have increated, but because the others have decreased so drastically. Threats: The Greater Storm Grouse is listed as endangered, with very few individuals still living in the wild. Their main threats currently are habitat destruction and illegal hunting; many of the forests they inhabited are being lost to agriculture and sapient settlements. This further exacerbates the hunting issue; while there does happen some poaching of the grouse due to their feathers' magical properties, much of the hunting is believed to be done as an act of believed self-defense. During their courtship ritual, males call down thunderstorms --which often causes forest fires in their wakes. And both sexes, but especially broody hens or hens with chicks are very aggressive to other spieces they believe to be threats. They will also often hunt for livestock when they cannot find enough food elsewere. Habitat destruction brings them closer to sapients, which puts the sapients in quiestion and their livestock in greater danger, which leads to the illegal hunting. ---In MAGIFAUNIA--- Lyn (F), 11ish years Various unnamed chicks of undetermined sex Noone really knows where Lyn came from originally. Her known history starts as a pet, but there are no records of where the owner got her from --and the reason she was even found was because the owner passed away, so there is no way of asking them. She was given to a rescue, who gave her a health checkup, estimated her to be around three years old, and then was very confused about what to do with her. She could not be released --her first reaction upon seeing strange ponies were to run up to ask for treats, and she'd try to hunt any livestock as that's what she'd been fed-- so they gave her to a sanctuary, who'd kept her up until she moved to Magifaunia. The reason for this move was that they wanted to include her in a breeding program to help restore the species; they had so few females in captivity as it were, and she was the right age and in good health. But she wasn't ever interested in any males, and never had any eggs. So she was sent to Magifaunia; everyone was hoping that Kinyume's extensive experience with Storm Grouses and special talent with magical birds could help. Magifaunia is very happy to have Lyn living there, despite the huge amount of space and ludicrus amount of expenses she required, due to just how dangerously few there are left. Even if she never got with eggs, they felt like she could really help educate ponies about the species plight. Luckily, the plan did work --turns out, all the pony-raised pet needed was another, equally pony-raised pet. Kinyume's Greater Storm Grouse Thunder (somehow) impressed her, and she quickly laid her first clutch. Since then, she's had several more clutches of eggs, even sired by other Storm Grouses once she understood what to do. She's raised several chicks to adulthood by herself, and due to how tame she is, she's had no problem with ponies sneaking in and pilfering a few eggs from under her. Since Storm Grouses lay more eggs than they usually can care for, it's better for the majority survival to take a few from her to give her less chicks to focus on. It is also done because, due to how she was raised in captivity, Lyn isn't exactly the best teacher for chicks which are supposed to survive in the wild. So the stolen eggs are then snuck under other, wild, broody hens who didn't have eggs of their own --it's not uncommon for hens to make a nest and try to lay eggs even if she hadn't been with a male, something which is growing more common as the males are killed off by hunters. So while it is very dangerous to do, the breeding program still approach hens and give them these adoprive eggs to hatch and raise --they're hoping it'll help in increasing their numbers in the wild, and introducing new genes into otherwise cut-off populations. All in all, Lyn's helped educate ponies about her species and the threats facing them, she's laid, hatched and raised a few clutches of chicks to adulthood, and she's provided valuable eggs to wild populations with dwindling numbers. All in all, she's a very good bird. --Misc. Notes-- Ever since I made Thunder a Storm Grouse, I fear his baby version is now retconned. Originally I based him on those so-ugly-they're-cute chicks of birds of prey and such, but as of now he officially used to look just like the chicks here; a fluffball with legs a size too big. He might've been sick when Kinyume got him, so he'd still be weak and needed to be spoon-fed for a little while, but he'd be able to walk and eat by himself pretty quickly --Kinyume just needed to cluck and nose at the food to make him understand it was edible. The pose Lyn is in here is an instinctual pose hens do when wary of something, which causes the chicks to instinctively take cover under her --though in this case she probably saw a very dangeorus looking red balloon floating up aoutside her enclosure or something. The reason for the pose --the spread wings and raising and lowering of the iridescent head-feathers-- is a warning. Namely, that she can at any point call down lightning on you, so you better back off. Thatäs why the chicks take cover, so avoid accidentally being struck. That's also one reason her enclosure was and is so expensive to build and maintain, as it has to be enchanted to function as it's own weather system. As is, she can call down all the lightning she wants, but it cannot strike outside of her cage. Since the chicks will not stay in Magifaunia once they reach adulthood, the staff never gives them actual names to avoid being attached, just numbers. Though even if they did want to name them, they'd probably would wait until the chicks reach one year old and start to grow their adult plumage --it's impossible to tell what sex they are until then.
---Description--- The Greater Storm Grouse, also known as just Storm Grouse, Lightning Rooster and Rain Grouse, is the largest known member of all grouse species. The males average at about 12 hooves in height, and females at about 10 hooves, with wingspans of around twice their heights. They are quite heavy, weighing in at around 80 shoes for males and 65 shoes for females: their weight compared to their wingspan has led scientists to speculate that they are a magic-dependant flighted species. The species displays sexual dimorphism, with males, called cocks or roosters, being grey in color, with a lighter marking on their chest resembling a rain-cloud, and a blue feather crest on their heads and large, blue tail-feathers. The feather-crest can be laid flat, sticking out back a bit from their heads, or raised, at which point it resembles a crown. The tail feathers can similarly be laid flat or spread out to form a diamond-shaped fan. Females, called hens, are brown with a similar light rain-cloud marking on their chest, with dark brown splotches covering their backs and wings. Hens also have a dark brown iridescent marking on their heads, and slightly longer feathers on their necks; these can lay flat or be lifted just slightly. This is often done in pulses, to make the iridescent head-feathers shift in color. Greater Storm Grouses are magifauna, with strong affiliations with weather magic. Both sexes can summon and create storm clouds and rain at will, with cocks often using them to call down impressive lightning strikes as part of their courtship ritual. Hens also share this ability, but they tend to limit its use to smaller, more directed lightning strikes in defense of their chicks. Lifecycle: The average lifespan of a Greater Storm Grouse is around twenty-five years in the wild, and up to thirty-five in captivity, with hens generally living longer than roosters. The species has a breeding season which occurs in early spring, during which, males will perform an elaborate coutship ritual. They find a clearing, often the same one each season, and start with a high warbling sound as they walk around the clearing, stopping to make calls every few steps, with their crests raised and their wings held low. These clearings, the coutship grounds, are often only held by one male; the rest of the year, much time is spent on defending it. If more than one attepts to court at the same ground, fights usually breaks out --but it is not uncommon for older males to let younger watch and ignore them for as long as they do not begin the courtship ritual themselves. Once females arrive, the males ramp up the vocalizations, while raising their tails and spreading their wings to appear larger. At this point, each vocalization is also often accompanied by a large lightning strike. This courtship continues until the hens show interest back by turnig their tails to the rooster and making vocalizations of their own. After this, the males leave and have next to no interactions with females until the next year. The females go and prepare a nest --usually above ground, but they will take shelter in caves or large abandoned dens of other species if available. They lay a clutch of around ten to fifteen eggs, which hatches in late spring. The new chicks can walk and eat on their own after just a few hours, and will follow the hen as she leaves the nest to find food. The chicks grow quickly, and will usually live with and be cared for and protected by their mother for about two years. Females reach sexual maturity at this point, while males usually don't try to participate in the courtship ritual for another year or two. Only about one third of the laid eggs actually make it to adulthood though, with the others being lost due to egg-theives, predators and the mother favouring the strongest chicks if resources are low. Diet and habitat: Storm Grouse are obligate omnivores, whose main diet consists of berries, roots, insects, carrion and small game. Those which live near rivers often also hunt for fish, particularly during the salmon run. They could be found in mainly forests, both boreal and temparate, and shrubblands. A few populations live in more mountainous terrain, in which case their diet focuses a lot more on meat than their forest and shrubbland living relatives. The mountain-living populations used to be vastly outnumbered, but the threats which face the Storm grouse to do affect them quite as much, so there are now about as many living in mountains as there are in forests and shrubblands. Not because they have increated, but because the others have decreased so drastically. Threats: The Greater Storm Grouse is listed as endangered, with very few individuals still living in the wild. Their main threats currently are habitat destruction and illegal hunting; many of the forests they inhabited are being lost to agriculture and sapient settlements. This further exacerbates the hunting issue; while there does happen some poaching of the grouse due to their feathers' magical properties, much of the hunting is believed to be done as an act of believed self-defense. During their courtship ritual, males call down thunderstorms --which often causes forest fires in their wakes. And both sexes, but especially broody hens or hens with chicks are very aggressive to other spieces they believe to be threats. They will also often hunt for livestock when they cannot find enough food elsewere. Habitat destruction brings them closer to sapients, which puts the sapients in quiestion and their livestock in greater danger, which leads to the illegal hunting. ---In MAGIFAUNIA--- Lyn (F), 11ish years Various unnamed chicks of undetermined sex Noone really knows where Lyn came from originally. Her known history starts as a pet, but there are no records of where the owner got her from --and the reason she was even found was because the owner passed away, so there is no way of asking them. She was given to a rescue, who gave her a health checkup, estimated her to be around three years old, and then was very confused about what to do with her. She could not be released --her first reaction upon seeing strange ponies were to run up to ask for treats, and she'd try to hunt any livestock as that's what she'd been fed-- so they gave her to a sanctuary, who'd kept her up until she moved to Magifaunia. The reason for this move was that they wanted to include her in a breeding program to help restore the species; they had so few females in captivity as it were, and she was the right age and in good health. But she wasn't ever interested in any males, and never had any eggs. So she was sent to Magifaunia; everyone was hoping that Kinyume's extensive experience with Storm Grouses and special talent with magical birds could help. Magifaunia is very happy to have Lyn living there, despite the huge amount of space and ludicrus amount of expenses she required, due to just how dangerously few there are left. Even if she never got with eggs, they felt like she could really help educate ponies about the species plight. Luckily, the plan did work --turns out, all the pony-raised pet needed was another, equally pony-raised pet. Kinyume's Greater Storm Grouse Thunder (somehow) impressed her, and she quickly laid her first clutch. Since then, she's had several more clutches of eggs, even sired by other Storm Grouses once she understood what to do. She's raised several chicks to adulthood by herself, and due to how tame she is, she's had no problem with ponies sneaking in and pilfering a few eggs from under her. Since Storm Grouses lay more eggs than they usually can care for, it's better for the majority survival to take a few from her to give her less chicks to focus on. It is also done because, due to how she was raised in captivity, Lyn isn't exactly the best teacher for chicks which are supposed to survive in the wild. So the stolen eggs are then snuck under other, wild, broody hens who didn't have eggs of their own --it's not uncommon for hens to make a nest and try to lay eggs even if she hadn't been with a male, something which is growing more common as the males are killed off by hunters. So while it is very dangerous to do, the breeding program still approach hens and give them these adoprive eggs to hatch and raise --they're hoping it'll help in increasing their numbers in the wild, and introducing new genes into otherwise cut-off populations. All in all, Lyn's helped educate ponies about her species and the threats facing them, she's laid, hatched and raised a few clutches of chicks to adulthood, and she's provided valuable eggs to wild populations with dwindling numbers. All in all, she's a very good bird. --Misc. Notes-- Ever since I made Thunder a Storm Grouse, I fear his baby version is now retconned. Originally I based him on those so-ugly-they're-cute chicks of birds of prey and such, but as of now he officially used to look just like the chicks here; a fluffball with legs a size too big. He might've been sick when Kinyume got him, so he'd still be weak and needed to be spoon-fed for a little while, but he'd be able to walk and eat by himself pretty quickly --Kinyume just needed to cluck and nose at the food to make him understand it was edible. The pose Lyn is in here is an instinctual pose hens do when wary of something, which causes the chicks to instinctively take cover under her --though in this case she probably saw a very dangeorus looking red balloon floating up aoutside her enclosure or something. The reason for the pose --the spread wings and raising and lowering of the iridescent head-feathers-- is a warning. Namely, that she can at any point call down lightning on you, so you better back off. Thatäs why the chicks take cover, so avoid accidentally being struck. That's also one reason her enclosure was and is so expensive to build and maintain, as it has to be enchanted to function as it's own weather system. As is, she can call down all the lightning she wants, but it cannot strike outside of her cage. Since the chicks will not stay in Magifaunia once they reach adulthood, the staff never gives them actual names to avoid being attached, just numbers. Though even if they did want to name them, they'd probably would wait until the chicks reach one year old and start to grow their adult plumage --it's impossible to tell what sex they are until then.
Comments
0 comments posted