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A Ramble on Nguruvilu
11 years ago
... Sooo I figured it was about time to sit down and write a little blurb on these guys ( http://www.furaffinity.net/view/13725425/ ) for some very mysterious reasons today while I rest between cleaning for company and other miscellaneous chores, in part because I love them as a headworld species, but most because I may or may not be considering some adoptables to sell here in the future. Y'all like interesting and unusual adopts, right? And hell, they're even part fox! Some earlier rambling and spare sketch stuff can also be found here: http://hanmonsterart.tumblr.com/pos.....ay-with-my-mom
Without further ado, though.
What the hell are they?
Nguruvilu (aquatic "fox snakes") are something I made up as personal headworld creatures following the discovery of a very short Wikipedia stub ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguruvilu ) that had no visuals whatsoever to offer me. What little there was of the description sounded really cool to me, being a fan of bizarre and unusual cryptids, and thus I decided to take 'em on as a design challenge. They've become much more vibrant and alive the past couple of years as I fleshed out and improved upon them; their most recent facelift happened as recently as my trip to Ohio, and I think they're finally about ready to be offered up to the public (sorta).
Anatomically they're based on a melange of different animals, including but not restricted to otters, ferrets, vipers, stingrays/skates, sailfish, seals, oarfish, jackrabbits and sea snakes. Their build most closely resembles a long, slinky, hairless otter with excess skin folds attaching from limb to body, dextrous paw hands and, perhaps most notably, a large, three-clawed "hand" at the end of their heavily muscled tails. Said hand acts like a grabbing/grappling implement and either of the side digits can act like an opposable thumb. Also notable is a dramatically colored "sail" they can lower or flash on their backs (which is always patterned in some form of eyespot/rosetting) to do anything from scare schools of fish to bluff at predators or rivals. They are quite venomous (what the cheek sacks produce is a powerful neurotoxin that paralyzes voluntary muscles) and enjoy a "triple threat" of delivery systems, with barbed spurs on their hind feet, a large prong on the sail, and two mobile, viper-like prehensile fangs in the place of more standard upper canine teeth (the remaining dentition is somewhere between fox and leopard seal). Their lungs can process oxygen on land or in the ocean with little trouble, nor are they restricted to salt or fresh water (their bodies have a salinity regulation system). At full size, an adult will stretch approximately 6 feet from nose to claw tip, with runts sometimes as small by half again. They give birth to live, highly precocial young in small litters ranging from 1-6 offspring. Habitat-wise, they can live just about anywhere with a relatively temperate climate (no frigid waters) and, preferably, some sort of coastline. Fun fact: petting one feels like soft, warm suede leather (or a sphinx cat). Oh, and they can also clamp their nostrils shut whenever they dive, like a seal or camel.
Behaviorally they ARE in fact sentient/sapient beings, with a human-analogous capacity for thought and reason. They are largely nonsexual barring reproduction for offspring and, curiously, are also true hermaphrodites despite being mammals (though all their reproductive equipment stays in a nondescript vent out of use), BUT that doesn't mean they're all the same gender. The Nguruvilu gender labels for "male" and "female" would actually be more equivilant to the human concept of an "aggressive" vs. a "passive" (or extrovert vs. introvert, fiery vs. calm, etc etc) personality type. They tend tend to be monogamous and roam the oceans/rivers in mated pairs (usually male/female, though female/female is also fairly common-- male/male tends not to happen much due to explosive head butting), preying on fish, mollusks, and anything else they can catch. They are instinctually afraid of knives for reasons no individual can articulate, and did once prey on humans back in ye olden days, though that's a practice they've (mostly) ceased for a number of reasons.
Visually (this is the stuff that matters to the adoptable part!) their colors tend to be similar to sea krates, with flesh in the blue/cool range (this can sway towards violets, greens, or even occasionally yellows), typically paler underbellies/points, and (... usually) some sort of banding (which I'm probably going to be taking in the "morph" and variant direction of ball pythons). Their sails are ALWAYS in the warm color range, with the hottest points of color in their eye spots or rosettes designed for threat display. Their noses/paw pads/mucous membranes are typically pinkish, though certain pockets of darker fleshed and "chow mouthed" varieties do probably exist.
So yeah! That's what I've got on these little boogers. I just wanted to write down something nice for the curious, and also so I could refer to this later if I so happen to open up for an adopt/post some premades or something. I'd also be more than happy to answer additional questions if you have any in the comments! Thanks for reading! :D
-Hanmonster
Without further ado, though.
What the hell are they?
Nguruvilu (aquatic "fox snakes") are something I made up as personal headworld creatures following the discovery of a very short Wikipedia stub ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguruvilu ) that had no visuals whatsoever to offer me. What little there was of the description sounded really cool to me, being a fan of bizarre and unusual cryptids, and thus I decided to take 'em on as a design challenge. They've become much more vibrant and alive the past couple of years as I fleshed out and improved upon them; their most recent facelift happened as recently as my trip to Ohio, and I think they're finally about ready to be offered up to the public (sorta).
Anatomically they're based on a melange of different animals, including but not restricted to otters, ferrets, vipers, stingrays/skates, sailfish, seals, oarfish, jackrabbits and sea snakes. Their build most closely resembles a long, slinky, hairless otter with excess skin folds attaching from limb to body, dextrous paw hands and, perhaps most notably, a large, three-clawed "hand" at the end of their heavily muscled tails. Said hand acts like a grabbing/grappling implement and either of the side digits can act like an opposable thumb. Also notable is a dramatically colored "sail" they can lower or flash on their backs (which is always patterned in some form of eyespot/rosetting) to do anything from scare schools of fish to bluff at predators or rivals. They are quite venomous (what the cheek sacks produce is a powerful neurotoxin that paralyzes voluntary muscles) and enjoy a "triple threat" of delivery systems, with barbed spurs on their hind feet, a large prong on the sail, and two mobile, viper-like prehensile fangs in the place of more standard upper canine teeth (the remaining dentition is somewhere between fox and leopard seal). Their lungs can process oxygen on land or in the ocean with little trouble, nor are they restricted to salt or fresh water (their bodies have a salinity regulation system). At full size, an adult will stretch approximately 6 feet from nose to claw tip, with runts sometimes as small by half again. They give birth to live, highly precocial young in small litters ranging from 1-6 offspring. Habitat-wise, they can live just about anywhere with a relatively temperate climate (no frigid waters) and, preferably, some sort of coastline. Fun fact: petting one feels like soft, warm suede leather (or a sphinx cat). Oh, and they can also clamp their nostrils shut whenever they dive, like a seal or camel.
Behaviorally they ARE in fact sentient/sapient beings, with a human-analogous capacity for thought and reason. They are largely nonsexual barring reproduction for offspring and, curiously, are also true hermaphrodites despite being mammals (though all their reproductive equipment stays in a nondescript vent out of use), BUT that doesn't mean they're all the same gender. The Nguruvilu gender labels for "male" and "female" would actually be more equivilant to the human concept of an "aggressive" vs. a "passive" (or extrovert vs. introvert, fiery vs. calm, etc etc) personality type. They tend tend to be monogamous and roam the oceans/rivers in mated pairs (usually male/female, though female/female is also fairly common-- male/male tends not to happen much due to explosive head butting), preying on fish, mollusks, and anything else they can catch. They are instinctually afraid of knives for reasons no individual can articulate, and did once prey on humans back in ye olden days, though that's a practice they've (mostly) ceased for a number of reasons.
Visually (this is the stuff that matters to the adoptable part!) their colors tend to be similar to sea krates, with flesh in the blue/cool range (this can sway towards violets, greens, or even occasionally yellows), typically paler underbellies/points, and (... usually) some sort of banding (which I'm probably going to be taking in the "morph" and variant direction of ball pythons). Their sails are ALWAYS in the warm color range, with the hottest points of color in their eye spots or rosettes designed for threat display. Their noses/paw pads/mucous membranes are typically pinkish, though certain pockets of darker fleshed and "chow mouthed" varieties do probably exist.
So yeah! That's what I've got on these little boogers. I just wanted to write down something nice for the curious, and also so I could refer to this later if I so happen to open up for an adopt/post some premades or something. I'd also be more than happy to answer additional questions if you have any in the comments! Thanks for reading! :D
-Hanmonster
They're generally solo or pair hunters, but group hunting isn't unheard of! Un-paired (as in, no mate/parted from their mate/etc) individuals are pretty adept at hunting down prey for themselves, though pairs can usually tackle much bigger, faster fish in tandem by switching off during the chase or strategically cornering/ambushing stuff.
I think the rare "pack" hunts probably happen when there are massive population explosions of bait balling/school fish. Pairs and individuals within the region may temporarily form loose groups to corral giant masses of fish together for a feeding frenzy/all you can eat fish buffet, kind of like dolphins do. Once the fish explosion has died down, they disband again back into their respective pairs and micro-groups.
I really hope to snag one someday because the Nguru sound really cool
I am so happy you were able to get the info of these guys all down and we know more about them! I can't wait to see more of them!