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| Sloth Squirrels Tabuk: There are several varieties of this one horned, yellow antelope. The common type frequents Ka-la-na thickets. It is small, graceful and eats berries and salt. Young tabuk rarely leave the thickets. Their hide is a mottled yellow and brown. Northern tabuk are massive, tawny, and swift. Many stand ten hands at the shoulder. Northern tabuk hairs are hollow and give its fur an excellent insulative quality. Both types have a single horn of ivory, a deadly weapon. It is a yard or so long and two and a half inches at the base. The herd of Tancred is a gigantic herd of northern tabuk, one of several. This herd winters in the rims of the northern forests, south and east of Torvaldsland. In the springtime, short-haired and hungry, they migrate northward, following the shore of Thassa until they reach the tundra of the polar basin for their summer grazing. When winter comes, long-haired and fat, they return south. The prairie tabuk reside in the Barrens. They are tawny, single-horned, and travel in herds. Some varieties lie down when sensing danger. They can attain short-term speeds of eighty to ninety pasangs an Ahn. Their evasive leaps can cover thirty to forty feet in length and heights of ten to fifteen feet. There are twenty varieties of tabuk in the rainforests. Tarsk: This is a six-tusked wild boar, with a bristly mane running down its spine. There is a giant tarsk that stands ten hands at the shoulder. There are several varieties of tarks in the rainforests, both large and small. They can be domesticated and the rencers keep some. They are best hunted from the back of kaiila with lances and the giant tarsk is often hunted on tarnback with lances. Tarsk meat tends to be salty. REPTILES Hith: This is the huge, many banded python of Gor. The great banded, horned hith is the most feared constrictor but is only native to certain areas of the Great Forests. The golden hith is a rare snake. Its body would be difficult for a grown man to encircle with his arms. Mamba: This is a large, predatory river tharlarion from the rainforests. It has a long, log-like body with short powerful legs. It has a long snout and tail. It is similar to a crocodile. Ost: This is a venomous, brilliantly orange snake that is little more than a foot long. Its bite causes an excruciating death within seconds. A powder prepared from its venom can be put into wine. The osts of the rainforests are red with black stripes. The banded ost is yellowish orange and marked with black rings. . Salamanders: In the salt mines, salamanders are tiny, white and blind. They are long bodied with long, stemlike legs. They have fernlike filaments at the sides of their heads that are feather gills, an external gill system. They have a slow metabolism and are capable of long periods of dormancy Tharlarion: There are numerous varieties of this reptile. One type is a species of saddle lizard, common on Gor especially in swamplands and deserts. They are used mostly by those who have not mastered tarns. Tharlarions have been bred for a thousand generations before the first tarn was tamed. Wild tharlarion have round, shining eyes, webbed feet, teeth ridges and a long brown tongue that curls around their prey. They are carnivorous creatures. High tharlarion are short-tempered creatures, that run on its two back feet. Its forelegs are tiny and near useless. They respond to voice signals though sometimes the butt of a lance is needed to move them, hitting them about the eye or ear openings. Those are the few sensitive areas on its body as they are almost impervious to pain, having a sluggish nervous system. Most of the larger varieties have a brain and a smaller brainlike organ, located near the base of the spine. They need far less water than tarns and their metabolism is slower than a tarn. When they move slowly, their stride is a proud, stalking movement. When going fast, they bound in leaps that can carry them twenty paces at a time. Its saddle is built to absorb shock, unlike the tarn saddle. Mounted warriors though still wear a leather belt around their waists. They also wear high, soft boots to protect against the abrasive hide of the creature. Draft tharlarion are four footed, slow moving animals. They are herbivorous and also known as Broad tharlarions. There are at least four species of draft tharlarion. Sea tharlarion, immune to the poison of Cosian wingfish, grow up to thirty feet and more in length and have a yellowish slatted belly. Rock tharlarion are the small lizards of the Tahari. There are tiny water tharlarion, about six inches long, that are little more than teeth and tail like piranha. Some live in the swamps. There are also marsh tharlarion and river tharlarion. River tharlarion are long necked, web-footed, and scaled. Some of them are herbivorous and can be domesticated. They may be used to tow barges on the Cartius River. Tharlarion are also used as cavalry and there are even racing tharlarions. Racing tharlarion are usually larger and more agile than saddle tharlarion but smaller than draft or war ones. The city of Venna is famed for its tharlarion races. Some select breeds of racing tharlarion include the Venetzia, Torarii and Thalonian Vart: carnivorous; a small, sharp toothed mammal that flies in flocks. Raised on Tyros in vart caves to be used as weapons Perhaps most I dreaded those nights filled with the shrieks of the vart pack, a blind, batlike swarm of flying rodents, each the size of a small dog, They could strip a carcass in a matter of minutes, each carrying back some fluttering ribbon of flesh to the recesses of whatever dark cave the swarm had chosen for its home. Moreover, some vart packs were rabid. Outlaw of Gor, page 26 Brown Vart: carnivorous animals that rest clinging upside down on branches. I could, however, recognize a row of brown varts, clinging upside down like large matted fists of teeth and fur and leather on the heavy, bare, scarred branch in their case. I saw bones, perhaps human bones, in the bottom of their case. Priest Kings of Gor, page 191 |