Gouper

Endangered bear-cats illegally imported from the tropical rainforests of Xendria to be kept and bred as domestic pets.

Native to the tropical climates of Xendria, goupers (often called "bear-cats") are an omnivorous species that have become part of a growing demand of (often illegal) exotic pet trades due to their unique appearance and cat-like mannerisms.

Goupers have keen senses - in particular, they will know when you're not sharing your food.

Gouper kit (placeholder) by (Photo by arwen_cz - Modified by melior64)

Biology

Anatomy

Goupers play an important role in the food chain of the Xendrian rainforests and have an omnivorous diet consisting of: rodents, small birds and reptiles (including their eggs), and oily fish. They take great pride in hunting for themselves, and also have a sweet tooth for cherries, figs, mangoes, and other native fruits. In the wild they are preyed upon by big cats, tree snakes, and crocodiles.
Goupers use their long, prehensile tail to assist them in balance and climbing, and can use it to hang from one branch to another. They are tree-dwelling in nature and will happily gorge themselves in the nests they build high up in the canopies, but they can sometimes be found waddling around in a drunken stupor after feasting on the fermented fruits rotting in the leaf litter below.

Behaviour

Goupers seem to be neither nocturnal nor diurnal and their active hours correlate to their environment and food available to them. When sleeping they lie curled up with their tail covering their eyes and nose.
Being arboreal creatures, they naturally love to climb and will find every opportunity to explore their surroundings using their strong claws and prehensile tail. Goupers are very playful and make many squeaks, chirrups, and purring sounds when they're having fun. When irritated they growl and hiss fiercely, puff out their coarse fur and turn sideways to look menacingly bigger.
Goupers use their long tail to aid in communicating states of emotion and will flail or whip the tip of it on surfaces in annoyance.

by Eutah Mizushima on Unsplash

Illegal Pet Trade

Wealthy folks illegally stole goupers and bred them in captivity as luxury exotic pets. Those with enough money joined the lucrative industry of selective breeding to create new domestic goupers.
Many are bred to produce finer, smoother coats with different colours and markings, whilst the mixed breed and "imperfect" goupers are taken up by farmers and bred not for aesthetics, but for obedience, loyalty, and ferocity to be used as working service animals in both hunting and protecting other animals.
They have thick, coarse fur which can become very musky in scent depending on their natural reproductive cycle and mating season. This is easily remedied with a bath which many folks are surprised to find that goupers are very fond of (in comparison to domestic cats). Some subspecies of goupers are selectively bred for their pleasant, naturally sweet-smelling aroma which has made them the rarest and most endangered of all gouper breeds.

"The hardest part is getting the gouper out of the bath tub! Once they're in there they won't want to come out until they've splashed all of the muddy water over the sides until it becomes too boring for them!! Honestly I wish you'd asked for a greyhound instead sometimes..."

— A displeased owner.

Gouper Coffee

Pet trade isn't the only industry threatening wild goupers, as they are often captured and force fed a strict diet of coffee cherries. The excreted beans are richer and less bitter due to passing through the digestive enzymes and gastric juices of the gouper, resulting in the perfect beans for producing expensive coffee.

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Domestic gouper by Naelin

Lifespan

20 years

Geographic Distribution

• Xendria, the mercantile archipelago

Known Owners
Lady Stoddard