Another imaginary future critter.

Other colloquial name(s): Wolfbear, Loper, Wolver
Genus & species: Gulo nitocris (Family Mustelidae)
Meaning of: Glutton, Nitocris (the name of a possibly legendary female Pharaoh, specifically her use in Lovecraft as the queen of ghouls and other demons)
Ancestral creature: Wolverine Gulo gulo
Size: 145 lbs (female), 75 Lbs (male)
Activity cycle: mostly nocturnal
Habitat: primarily arctic, alpine & taiga
Social structure: pack (female) solitary (male)
Diet: carnivore

Descended from wolverines, in this era dire gluttons fill the ecological niche vacated by wolves and foxes. This is a solidly built animal with relatively long legs that allow it to hit top speeds of up to 35 mph over short distances, or lope at a pace of about 5 mph for hours at a time. Their coarse, dense coats are water repellent, and they hunt in all weather conditions. Compared to their ancestors, dire gluttons have stronger jaws and teeth, reflecting a focus on larger prey.

The dire glutton exhibits an extreme case of sexual dimorphism. Inverting the ancestral type, the females are almost twice as big as the males and much stockier. They hunt in packs of up to twenty, co-operating to bring down the largest prey animals such as Zeus brantas. Females are patterned in grey and brown, with light buff underparts and an upstanding mane of brilliant, pale fur. The female’s mane color reflects her rank. Younger females, and those which are ill, under fed, or otherwise stressed, will grow in a dull, dingy yellowish color. Healthy, high-ranking females have brilliant white manes. If the animal’s condition changes, the mane color can completely alter within a few weeks. Shorter term changes are shown by how erect the mane hairs are held. Submissive females carry their manes flat, dominant females flare them (enhancing an overall more erect stance).

Males are colored a dull chocolate brown with short, slightly lighter brown mane. They’re solitary hunter that normally take down smaller animals such as kids, fawns, hares and so on, filling the ecological niche of foxes. Males are territorial, but females range freely in pursuit of their prey. Females face competition from lateovuls, especially in the southern areas, but the males don’t directly compete with many other mammalian predators (they’re larger than their next nearest size class).

In this way, the same stretch of territory can support both males and females, as the same species is filling two different ecological niches.

For most of the year, the genders don’t mix. The females will actively drive off males they spot. As the mating season begins, males will slink around the outskirts of female packs, scent marking everything within reach and risking life and limb as he attempts to keep the ladies within his territory (if they chose to leave, there’s little he can do about it except fight another male in a desperate attempt to expand his territory). Females come into season more or less simultaneously, and that week is the highlight of the male’s year. He still risks getting badly bitten if he blithely approaches a female whose cycle lags behind the rest of the pack, or outstays his welcome.

Cubs are born after a gestation period of three months. Mothers are ready to hunt the day after birth, and elderly females and adolescents are left behind to watch the cubs. By four months old, the little girls are ready to start trailing along with hunting parties (where they usually cause more trouble than anything else). In the den, the aggression of their sisters is driving the young males out. By five months, they boys are totally independent, but their sisters will be two or three years old before they’re fully competent.

Although active hunters for the most part, dire gluttons don’t hesitate to gang up on other animals and harass them into abandoning their kills. Their thick coats and tough hides protect them from the fangs, claws and beaks of aggressors. They are also enthusiastic consumers of carrion, which lateovuls normally don’t touch.

Dire gluttons range south as far as the grasslands, but are much less numerous in the lower latitudes where they face completion from numerous other predators. The southern variety tends to be smaller and more delicately built, but although the differences between the southernmost and northernmost varieties are very visible, the gradation in types makes it unclear where to draw a line between subspecies.