Jack-Moose, Marsh and Beaked
| Class: |
Basic beast, reasonably realistic |
| Hab: |
Temperate or sub-arctic |
| Fre: |
Common |
| Num: |
Marsh jack moose: mixed herds; 1-6 bulls + 1-4 cows each
Beaked jack moose: solitary or 1 bull + 1-4 cows
|
| Lair: |
10%; nomadic, patrolling wide territory, but defend only in fall |
| Size: |
6' to 8' at rest, 800 to 1,200 lbs. |
| Move: |
"Race-walk" 5 x faster than a horse - even through woods or water |
| Def: |
Very thick hide and hair |
| Att: |
Marsh: antlers = 6 x sword, kick = war axe
Beaked: bite = sword + amputations, kick, spitball = sling stone
|
| Int: |
Basic beast |
| Spec: |
Extensible accordion legs: walk up cliffs like steps, wade in deep water |
| Posns: |
Great leather, good meat, antlers |
Jack-Moose
The jack-moose is very like the common, real-world moose, but is easily distinguished by its legs. The jack-moose has but a single pair of legs, resembling a normal moose's forelegs if male and a normal moose's hind legs if female. These legs are two to four times as long as a normal moose's legs, and have an equally multiplied number of knees, bending in alternate directions. This permits the jack-moose to squat down to a mere 3' in height, its legs folding up under it accordion-style, or to extend itself to its full height, some 14' to 28' tall, depending on the number of knees. Like a normal moose, jack-moose stand 6' to 8' at rest.
Unlike normal moose, in jack-moose the female as well as male bear antlers. They hold them all through the year. The males lose theirs in mid-summer, the females lose theirs a month later, after the males' have grown in. Some speculate that the name jack-moose may come from the male-associated feature of antlers ("jack" being a term for males of several species), but most agree that the name jack refers to the accordion-jack like action of their legs.
Lone jack-moose are sometimes known as "buff buglers," because of their plaintive honking, like a lovesick foghorn, as they wander the woods and waterways in search of friendly company. Where jack-moose are few, they may court other types of moose, with fertile results. Where moose of any sort are rare, a jack-moose may develop an attachment to a cow or other creature of approximately correct proportions - or even mechanical devices with bobbing motions which resemble the jack-moose's accordion-like bouncing up and down.
Both marsh and beaked jack moose have elaborate courtship dances. These are based upon springing in place, squatting down to the ground and then popping up to full extension, effectively launching themselves in to the air in great pogo-like hops, retracting their legs when their bodies reached apogee. A jack moose can jump up to twice its full extension in height.
Their multiple knees makes running problematic for jack moose. However, with such long strides, they can "race-walk" five times as fast as a horse can run, and are little slowed by woods or water. Further, then can step right up cliffs, as then can set a hoof on a ledge up to half again as high as their maximum extension.
There are two main types of jack-moose, the soft-muzzled marsh jack-moose that, like its common cousin, prefers a diet of soft water plants, and the beaked jack-moose, which browses upon twigs and pinecones.
Marsh Jack Moose
The marsh jack-moose can wade in water only a couple of feet less deep than the moose's full-extension height. It steps in to waters, whether marsh or bog, river or lake and walks about until it feels an abundance of waterweeds. Upon detecting water plants, the moose folds its legs, lowering itself to the bottom of the water. It then swings its head about under water, catching the plants on its antlers. Rising back up to the surface, the moose then displays the bounty it has reaped to its herd-mates, who gather and munch it all down. Because their feeding strategy is cooperative, marsh jack-moose form small mixed herds, usually with
In heraldry, the marsh jack-moose is a symbol of working for the benefit of one's fellows.
Beaked Jack-Moose
A diet of twigs and pinecones is extremely rich in fiber. Like a cow, the beaked jack-moose has multiple stomach chambers in which symbiotic microbes digest its tough meals, reducing the cellulose of wood pulp to sugars and starch. If threatened, the beaked jack-moose can hawk up a wad of cud and spit it with amazing accuracy. Such wood pulp spitballs are larger than a sling-stone, but less dense; their damage (and range) is equal to a sling-shot stone.
Like the marsh jack-moose, the beaked jack moose have antlers on females as well as males through much of the year, but they are greatly reduced, and not used in combat.
While the jack-moose described here are the result of multiple mutations, triggered by weird radiations, on alien worlds or in high fantasy settings, there may be bizarre creatures which closely resemble a jack-moose in form and behavior, even if they are quite different in terms of internal organization and external surface features (i.e., "upholstered and decorated" differently, perhaps with other special features).