Nirja ([ NEER - yah ])

Distribution

Nirja are found all over Tinobi, regardless of climate or landscape, being able to adapt and survive in every natural environment they have so far been tested in, although they are found most commonly in the tussock grasslands of Flatrun, the grass sea of Goldenriver, and the hillocks of Grassroosts, all in southwestern Tinobi. In such environments where it is possible, nirja dig large, sprawling tunnel networks underground, and where it isn't possible, they sleep in heaping piles to share body warmth and provide protection from the elements from those in the centre of the heap, rotating to allow others to sleep and recuperate. Nirja have even been found to carve out tunnel systems in rock over time, when different clans have returned to the one system of many years. As such, given their wandering nature, most of a nirja's life is spent creating and making their home, barely finishing before they're ready to move on to a new place.

Social Structure

As with many lagomorphs, the nirja have a very fast reproductive cycle and birth large litters of kits. Their young are precocial, although the existence of a pouch on adult nirja (both male and female) had many biologists assuming otherwise at first, and classifying the nirja as marsupials. Nirja do not need the pouch to raise their young as many marsupials with altricial young do, instead it has been argued that the pouch is vestigial. The nirja were once marsupials, or marsupial adjacent, and while they have evolved more self-sufficient young, their pouch was utilised for other practical purposes. Nirja are travelers, not for any real migratory pattern (they can survive pretty much anywhere on anything), but they seem to feel a sense of wunderlust. Nirja clans can often be seen with up to ten offspring of varying ages shoved into their pouches as they pick up and move to other pastures. As far as ranks within clans go, there seems to be little difference between the functions of male and female nirja, beyond the initial few days immediately following birth where female nirja must feed their young. Adult nirja can be seen acting in a variety of 'roles' at any given point in time - patrolling the bounds of their warren, exploring beyond the warren, hunting, gathering, looking after children. From observation, the social structure of the nirja appears to be incredibly complicated, and yet not at all. All nirja do and are capable of doing all of the tasks required for the large clans to function. Clans are generally around 100 to 200 nirja strong, and with litters of around 8 on average when a clan begins to swell beyond the 200~ range, the clan will break apart during one of their 'wanders' and end up approximately halved and in two separate locations. There seems to be no continuation of familial structure more specific than clan once a nirja has reached maturity, as there seems to be no consistency in whether sires, dams, and offspring stay together after a clan separates.