Mouse Wyvern
With the abundance of polyphs adapted for life in Zone E, an overabundance of seeds also arose. A population of sand wyverns split off to take advantage of this food source. The mouse wyvern is similar in size to its ancestor, being 1 foot long and 4 inches tall. Like its ancestor, it digs with its wing hands; however, it does this to have a den to sleep in and avoid potential predation, rather than for its foraging. Still, it developed the ability to rotate its wrists, massively increasing the efficiency of its digging. Like its ancestor, it is nocturnal. It has evolved a set of whisker-like feathers on its face to help it feel around in the dark. It is capable of flight by fluttering, but rarely does so, mainly retaining the ability just to escape predators.
The mouse wyvern, like its ancestor, uses feather displays and the beard present in males to court mates around dawn or dusk, with the length of the beard showing off its health. After the female has chosen a mate, the male moves into the female’s burrow. They mate underground, and the female then lays a clutch of 2-5 eggs. The parents take turns incubating the eggs until they hatch, and then they take turns bringing food to the burrow to feed their babies until they are about 10 weeks old. The offspring stay with their parents until they are fully mature at about 8 months old, after which they go out to make their own burrows and eventually find a mate, beginning the cycle over again. Mated pairs will attempt to breed twice a year.
The mouse wyvern feeds on the seeds of S. phyllosymplegmus, S. chirapalamus, S. thamnos, S. chloodus, S. paralius, and D. desertus. It will also scavenge for meat from anything it finds. The over-abundance of seeds all over the savannahs and grasslands it inhabits causes its population to sometimes reach massive sizes in times of plenty.
Gallery
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Female
