Spittlejacks

Spittlejacks are burrowing predatory creatures, which have a less than proactive approach to catching prey. They hunt by digging various pitfalls throughout an area, interlinked with a series of tunnels. They mark these pitfalls with bait in the form of killed smaller animals such as rabbits, juvenile deer, boar, and other such creatures to attract larger prey.

They are solitary creatures, meeting with others of their species only to mate or fight over territory.

Habitat
Spittlejacks prefer to live in areas with soil and loose rock for them to burrow through, placing them most commonly in forests, lower mountain foothills, and caves. If possible, a Spittlejack will locate their warren to have access to an underground source of water running through a chamber of the burrow.

When idle, Spittlejacks busy themselves with expanding their warren, digging out chambers or new traps, or sleeping in wait of prey.

If a Spittlejack has good luck with its hunting, it will store excess food in an antechamber dug into the warren. Spittlejacks are native to Ti'var and Estahiir, choosing to dig their burrows in those lands specifically.

Biology
Spittlejacks are quadrupeds with forward-facing eyes that do not appear to see well in full light but can locate a living body with ease in the dark. Their paws are mounted with razor-sharp claws, and they have tough steel-strong scales covering their shoulders, back, legs, tail, and head. An adult stands to shoulder-height on a human, and is twice as wide.

Sociology
Spittlejacks are solitary creatures, gathering only to mate or fight for territory.

A mating pair of Spittlejacks will share a warren for an extended period until a litter of kits are born, at which point the male will leave to construct a new warren. The litter of kits will remain with the mother until they mature their claws, at which point the mother will abandon them to produce a warren of her own, leaving the kits to sort themselves out. More often than not the most dominant of them will claim the warren, expelling the others to create their own burrows.

A Spittlejack that dies of old age will do so in its warren. More often than not, the warren will collapse on the individual from disuse, burying them. On the odd occasion that a rival Spittlejack comes to inhabit the burrow of their deceased elder, the creature that moves in will bury the body before doing much else. This tendency to bury their dead has sparked some discussion on the intelligence of Spittlejacks in the past.

Trivia
Spittlejacks have a habit of storing dead prey that they do not eat straight away for later consumption after long sleeps. In the antechambers that they dig for such purposes, one can often find personal effects of victims that a Spittlejack has deemed to be inedible.

Spittlejacks make for easier targets in the rare circumstance that they appear above ground.