Scanderan river wolf

River wolf
A drawing of a riverwolf
Conservation status
Near Threatened (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Cetacea
Family:	Ambulocetidae
Genus:	Ambulocetus
Species:	A.Scandera
Binomial name
Ambulocetus Scandera Hylfred Görenssen, 1798
Habitat

The Scanderan riverwolf is an amphibious mammal that is a close relative to whales rather than wolves as the name would imply. It makes it's home in the freshwater rivers, lakes as well as the brackish water of innanhafet. However just as the wolf so is the river wolf predatory and hunts both for fish in the rivers but is also known to lie in ambush amongst the rivers before it charges it's unsuspecting prey that have gotten too close to the river.

Etymology

The Scanderan river wolf is known in the federation as "flodulf" which translates directly to river wolf and comes from the Urmål name "Fljótulfr".

History

The riverwolf amongst sea wyrms and krakens have historically been the most common thing to carve out on Scanderan longboats to spread dread and terror amongst ones foe. For instance so did the ship of Erik auf Stjärnkhrone in the silver war wear a head of a river wolf just as it's black sails had two large red river wolves painted on them.

And Harald auf foltulfir that lead the attack on the Vedian captial during the 200 years war from Jarnarna had also decorated his ship with a river wolf and had a red river wolf painted on his white sails.

Taxonomy

The riverwolf was named first by Hylfred Görenssen in his book "di simmande raserna" where he classified it as a relative of the wolf rather than the whale as it was later on qualified as.

Anatomy and health

Size compared to a human

The river wolf is a quadrupedal amphibious animal that is almost three meters long. Covered in a thick layer of dark brown fur and with broad but thin feet so does it swim with remarkable speed just as it is known to be a very quick runner over short distances.

The mouth of the river wolf is very long with eyes placed on top of the head to allow it to grab it's prey while the long rows of sharp teeth are not only able to rip flesh apart with ease just as it can also bit a sure hold of it's prey.

The river wolf is also known for it's strong backlegs and jaws that can lock itself in place making sure that it's prey will not get away while it's strong legs allow it to drag down it's prey into the cold dark waters where it lives.

During the cold winter months however so does the riverwolf gorge itself to build up a layer of fat to help it survive the freezing temperatures even if this gives it a somewhat comedic look that hyflred described as "A compact mass of fur, seal and teeth"

Reproduction

When the river wolf mates so does it do so for life and the pair lives in the same nest for most of the year. The female gives birth to a litter a year of around three kids that spends a year with their parents before they leave.

Diet

The river wolf is carnivorous and hunts amongst the river side after deer, rabuks, the giant goose, shagarths, monkeys amongst other things as they drink while it also hunt for large fish in the river itself.

Behaviour

The river wolf is territorial and lives in pairs of a male and a female around a nest that they build in a river that reminds of the huts built by beavers. The river wolf then uses it's water territory to hunt by laying in ambushes and make lightning attacks when the prey drinks. However it is not unknown for the river wolf to venture up on land to hunt for food.

However once the river wolf have managed to catch it's prey so does it bite it and locks it jaws around it before she drags it down into the river where it drowns it's prey.

Life expectancy

A river wolf can grow to be around 15 years old.