Endemic to the Black Coast Islands in Infinity Horizon lies an endemic predator with a nightmarish reputation. You might see a hand struggling to stay above water and even muffled cries of drowning, but upon closer inspection, the hand is a crude imitation of one, with the arm a tentacle. The truncodile, or, as known in the local language, “leminsch” has a kind prehensile trunk with a sensitive nasal star on the end, which it can use in horrific fashion.
They traditionally are generalist aquatic predators, however, some ecotypes and subspecies have become specialist hunters partially thanks to a mutation that has one of the six finger tentacles of the nasal star highly reduced and underdeveloped, having it bear a resemblance to a hand.
They will fake a drowning or swimming primate to lure in others to be pulled underwater, drowned, and eaten. However, as primates are known for their keen eyesight, high intelligence, and good memory, this strategy will not always succeed.
They still employ other strategies such as simple stealth, and disguising a segment of their trunk as a branch. They have a wide variety of prey items including bivalves, worms, crustaceans, fish, and many large tetrapods, often probing the mud, lying in wait for passing animals or using their nasal fingers as a lure. Primate specialist ecotypes also expand on their infamous hunting strategy.
Black Coast langurs, one of two endemic monkeys, are a favorite prey item, as they have below-average eyesight and are not excessively intelligent or alert by primate standards. Truncodiles often ambush under the cover of darkness where the monkeys have the least visibility. They will also partner with the Black Coast magpie, a relative of currawongs and butcherbirds, in a surprisingly effective symbiotic relationship. It will mimic the alarm calls, begging calls, screams, and dying noises of the monkeys, and even make it sound appropriately garbled and muffled by water. Some truncodile even have been observed to gnaw off a primate arm and use that instead of its nasal star as a lure.
This entry was made by community member, Scifipug