Krik: Magnificent Beasts of Hentz by KveldulfOVERVIEW: Krik are massively built herbivores native to the Yazirian homeworld. Most numerous in the thick forests of that world, a few subspecies are known to have adapted to life in scrubland and moist plains. Krik are stoutly built and their bulk is believed to be an adaptation to the low gravity of the yazirian home planet. The low gravity not only makes carrying larger body mass possible, it compensates to some degree for the low average temperature of the planet (an adaptation similar to that found among sea-dwelling whales common to the human-settled worlds of the Frontier). Krik thrive best in temperate to near-Arctic forests, and die out rapidly when introduced to hot or high-gravity environments (as past failures by park operators on Hargut and Minotaur have demonstrated). Their hearing is equivalent to that of a yazirian or human, but their sense of smell is legendary; their keen sense of smell can detect nutritious roots buried as deep as a meter below ground. Their eyesight is poor overall - mostly useful for sensing movement, and they have no color vision; however, their limited eyesight does function well in near-darkness, much like the yazirians' own. They travel in small herds composed of a bull, several females and their young. PHYSIOLOGY: The krik's head is the largest single part of its body and sports the cruel tusks for which they are famed in both folklore and holovid. In most animals it the head is roughly a meter in length, and reaches nearly 1.5 meters in the largest bulls. The broad jaws taper towards the mouth with the large tusks sprouting from the lower jaw at its end; the tusks themselves are powerfully anchored, being an extension of the lower jawbone itself. The tusks are used primarily in rooting up vegetation and roots but double as a vicious defense; krik tusks measure anywhere between 35 cm and 60 cm long on adult males, and between 20 cm and 40 cm on females. Knobby protusions on the side of the krik skull provide additional protection to the head, and are useful for butting aside smaller trees, saplings, etc. The two nostrils are set near the front of the snout with the nasal cavities running along the upper jawline for 35 cm before turning up and into the large sinus cavities; these long nasal passages endow the beast with its impressive sense of smell and moisturize air flowing through the nose into the sinuses and lungs. Two leathery ears are located near the top of the skull and fold to appear roughly tubular from the side; they average 40 cm in length and 15 cm across at the tip. Two large eyes are set deep in the skull to protect them from damage by enemies or the long-spiked bramble plants which choke the ground of yazirian forests. The eyes are wide set (giving good peripheral vision) but close together enough that limited binocular vision (and hence depth perception) is possible to the front. Krik are not particularly intelligent and their brain is only slightly larger than an average yazirian's or human's. The body structure of the krik is less remarkable than the massive head. Only about two and a half times as long as the head, the animal's body is compact for its size but powerfully muscled. It's legs are somewhat stubby and four-toed. The forelegs are slightly shorter than the rear legs and have thick, sharp claws; this enabling the animal to dig quickly even through packed soil and gravel, but make it slow and ungainly when running. The powerful hind legs are longer, and strong enough to hoist the krik up into a crouch with its forelegs braced against a tree; this ability to rear up allows to the animal to crush low-lying obstructions rather than push through them, to sharpen its claws against the tall yazirian trees - also serving to mark its territory, and to snack on low-lying shrubs and fungi infesting the bases of trees. The tail is short and thick, heavy enough to knock aside small bushed and saplings for krik behind the lead animal. Krik hide is reknowned in yazirian tradition and is justly famed for its beauty and durability throughout the Frontier. The thick hide is a lustrous green-black in color and can be shined to a mirror-like polish. Its consistency is leathery on the back, hindquarters, the ears. and the top of the head shading into a scaly, almost reptilian texture on th rest of the head, the shoulders, flanks, belly and legs. Heavy folds of leathery hide cover the animal's neck, but elsewhere it is firm to the touch. Yazirians traditionally use different portions of a krik hide for different goods. The leathery portions of a hide are fashioned into belts, scabbards, holsters and and capes for the elders of the clan - such items being awarded by the elders for acts on behalf of the clan, and then passed down from parent to child. The heavier, scaly sections of hide are shared among the clan and fashioned into more prosaic goods - hide shields, door coverings, sacks, hammocks and roofing tarps. ECOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR: Krik occupy a vital niche in the forest ecology of the yazirian homeworld. Browsing through the choked vegetation and underbrush which envelopes the base of yazirian trees, they clear broad swaths across the forest floor. Krik paths quickly become small ecosystems of their own with new saplings taking root (often initially in the fertile droppings of the krik herd), smaller animals moving in to feed on the new growth, and lush greenery erupting from the plowed-up soil left in the herd's wake. Using their tusks and sharp foreclaws, a krik herd can rapidly tear a path through heavy brush - and turn over the soil in the process - that would take several days and heavy earth-moving equipment for a UPF forestry team to accomplish. Krik scour plant and fungus infestations from trees as they feed, improving the health of a forest and clearing space for new growth. Due to their prodigous appetites, a krik herd requires a thickly-forested territory of at least several hundred square kilometers; herds of the smaller subspecies adapted to scrubland or prairie conditions require over a thousand square kilometers to survive. Krik herds include a male bull, several females and their young and may number as many as 20 total animals. New herds are formed when a young male lures one or more females away from an existing herd, a dangerous business often involving a pitched battle with the herd's older bull. Krik herds are somewhat territorial, and will avoid paths cleared by another herd. Herds will generally ignore any other animals they encounter, but will panic and flee fire, explosions and bright lights. They have no natural predators, but commonly die of disease (especially infections of broken tusks and the nasal passages) or old age. Krik typically live between 30 and 50 Standard years, though captive specimens have lived to 70 years and yazirian folklore tells of wild krik reaching ages of 100 years or more. Encounters with single krik are almost always with male bulls - either young males expelled by the bull of their own herd and seeking females, or old bulls deranged by age and expelled from their herds; such males are avoided by all but the most determined yazirian hunters - there being few more fearsome quarries than an enraged krik bull. ON THE FRONTIER: Krik were first introduced by yazirian colonists to terraformed portions of Yast's moon Exib around 150 P.F. A small colony of the animals was maintained in the moon's park domes, but faired poorly since there was relatively little room for the herds to expand. A breakthrough came with the discovery of Araks in 129 P.F.; regarding the planet's discovery as a religious portent, the Family of One clan quickly settled the world and has cultivated a large, thriving population of krik in wilderness preserves. With the discovery and settlement of the mineral-poor world of Histran in 94 P.F., the Family of One was able to export some of their burgeoning krik herds to this promisimg outpost; though the Family has been little interested in the affairs of Histran generally, its biologists and religious leaders still take an active role in protecting and expanding the Histrani herds. Commercial and sport hunting of krik is universally forbidden in yazirian space, though traditional hunting by forest clans is still permitted, serving to thin out weak and diseased animals. Goods made of krik hide are extremely difficult to come by on any world but those with live herds, and command astronomical prices on the Core worlds (Cassidine, Pale, Prenglar, White Light). Poaching is a constant threat but harsh penalties (including summary execution) keep it to manageable levels. Several worlds have to tried to introduce and breed krik, but all save those mentioned above have failed; these failures were largely due to the envoronmental limits of krik to survive. In warm and hot climates, their long nasal cavities quickly become infected by microbes and parasites leading to a long, miserable death; on higher gravity planets, their bones - though strong enough to support them on low-gravity worlds - break frequently leaving the animals to starve to death. Unlicensed export and smuggling of the animals is punished as severely as poaching by their yazirian keepers.  
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