Tundra's critters
Dappled Dippets
Dappled Dippet's are small flightless birds who reside in burrows beneath the frozen floor of Keldurn Forest. The Dippets use their wide, flat beaks to dig into the earth, scraping the frosty earth before using their wings to create a complex warren system. The entrances are spread across the forest, with a few small burrows making boltholes for Dippets to escape from predators and intruders.
They are shy creatures and their dappled feathers, (which lends them their name,) make them harder to spot, especially when feeding from low-growing shrubbery. Each Dippet has a slightly different pattern of markings on their tiny feathers, but each range from white-tipped greys and pale browns in the winter months, to darker colours in the summer. This provides them with effective camouflage when they stand as still as possible if a predator passes by. Young Dippets, known as Dipplings, don't gain their dappled feathers until they reach adulthood and remain within the burrows, relying on their parents to bring back food.
Courtship amongst the Dappled Dippet's require the males to build a suitable burrow and forage for the leafiest branches of shrubs that they can find. To the females this proves their ability to provide shelter and food for the family. Within these burrows the couple settle down where the female will lay her eggs, often two or three. These burrows are often made not too far from the main Dippet warren so they might join up once the Dipplings have hatched. The Dipplings gather together in the center of the warren, not only being the safest and warmest part but also where they can socialise.
Burrowing Gnat
Large centipede creatures that burrow inside the tops of the trunks of trees. They live in each tree for a few days in a group of about twenty, before moving on to a different part of the forest.
During winters they venture down south to more temperate areas, and during the spring they return to the snowy tundras.
Dark green and brown in colouration, with short triangular wings to glide down to the ground. With their many legs they can scale entire trees in less than a minute.
Voracious animals that do not take kindly to visitors of the forest. While they're not all that dangerous as they lack sharp fangs, these animals will glide down onto people walking through the forest and scare them to death.
Marix
The Marix stands as a larger reptile, its huge underbite overbearing upon its frame. They are known to stand on their hind legs and use their aposable thumb to pick fruit from higher in trees and to grasp onto branches that allow them climb higher.
They are often known to climb up mountainous and cliff-like regions. Often they are tamed by forest dwellers as mounts to climb through trees and up the mountain ranges that block their path. The Marix started their existence as desert based reptiles but through the influence of civilization and the sudden arrival of water-ways, were translocated to dense tundra.
Raspberry lizzard
The Raspberry lizzard is a small reptile with two peculiar leathery wings on their front legs that they use for gliding from tree to tree. Their favourite food are the seeds found inside raspberries although they can also eat seeds from other types of berries. They are a solitary specie, only gathering with other lizzards during mating season during the time they take care of their babies.
They've a peculiar way of child rearing that is making nests inside the tree holes, like some birds do. They can be seen sometimes climbing small trees with raspberries on their beak like mouth in order to feed their babies.
Their small size and their hands allows them to cling to the branches of this type of trees, from where they can eat the seeds directly biting the raspberries or throwing them to the ground and eating them there.
Clafur bears
These bear-like creatures are big, about 3m long and 2,5m to the shoulders. They have a short tail and a long coat. Their winter coat is long and very fluffy, with white colours; their summer coat is shorter (although fur can be a hand long still), less dense, and grey/brownish coloured.
They are omnivorous, they specially like fish and berries when there are around, but are not picky with food and will eat whatever they can find when there is a shortage of food, such as in winter.
They mate during spring and their cubs are born late spring, early summer, and usually one or two cubs are born. They will kill anyone or anything (there have been cases of seeing them attacking stones or trees) that hurts their cubs. They walk around with their cubs on their back, and leave them on branches while hunting, but they never get too far of their cubs.
While during the day you might see them as solitary creatures, they like to sleep on groups of a dozen or so. In winter, multiples "sleep groups" get together to ward of the cold better.
They are considerated the Apex predator of the forest as their teeth and claws can pierce every other's animals skin and protections, and because they are quite harsh to kill, as their thick fur protects them from what could have been a deadly wounds.
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Author's Notes
Article based on the RPG journalling Exquisite Biome by Sea Excursion. It is a game about the symbiosis of the natural world. Create an ecosystem, populate it with strange and wondrous animals, and see how they interact with one another.