The Lopphore

Lopphore

Characteristics: The Lopphore is around 5 feet tall at the top of their head. Their ears can add as much as three feet more to their height. Their length tops out at around 9 feet with a thick muscular tail that serves as a counter balance against the weight of their larger heads. They weigh anywhere from 220-330lbs. The males stand around 4 feet tall and 7 feet in length and weight around 220-270lbs. These bipedal mammalian creatures have no arms to speak of. To make up for their lack of arms Lopphore have Antennae. These Antennae stick out from the nostril slits just above the Lopphore Toothless mouth. These ¼ inch thick antennae are highly sensitive and extremely prehensile; they can feel vibrations of insects within logs or moving over moss. Their Antennae can also lift around 3 lbs safely. Their Antennae can also extend to the full length of the Lopphore, although on average they only extend them around 6 inches.  Lopphore are covered in thick fur of the softest kind. This fur is highly prized by sentient races that farm them for food and hide. Each Lopphore has a pair of ears that are reminiscent of the rabbits and hares of earth. The ears of Male Lopphore are shorter and thinner than the females which are the larger and wider ears. The ears can stand erect or flop down.

Organization: Lopphore live in packs of anywhere from 3-20 members. These packs change out members anywhere from three to five times a year during migration. Every time a pack meets another pack they combine into one pack where their paths crossed. Usually they will travel for a full day before separating. When they separate once more at least half of the adults from each pack will leave with the other, and all female young (if there are any loppits in the pack) will be traded. This instinct prevents inbreeding within the packs.

Habitat/Diet: They eat only soft bodied insects and mosses, lichens, mushrooms, and other such soft food items that they can devour with their toothless mouths. Lopphore live in areas high in food content. This can be any forest north or south. They will migrate wherever there is the most food. Packs of them have been known to strip forests clean of mosses on their migratory paths. Luckily Lopphore never follow the same migratory path twice and therefore most areas will be able to recover from a packs insurgence.

Activity: Lopphore are strictly Diurnal creatures. When the sun starts to set they become slower and start settling in to sleep for the night. Once they have settled in for the night they become completely torpid. If they have not found themselves in a suitable safe place to rest for the night they may well be preyed upon by nocturnal predators.

Reproduction: Breeding season begins in early winter and lasts until mid winter. Gestation is generally 70-80 days. 74 days is the average. They will give birth to 1-7 loppits. Loppits are born fully furred, eyes and ears open, though highly clumsy. It takes them around 2-10 days to be properly mobile.  They will nurse on their mother for around 1 month; the last litter of the season however will nurse for around 2-3 months longer. Lopphore have twin uteri and are interesting creatures in that when they become pregnant their second uterus will open up and the female can become pregnant again within 10 days before the birth of the first litter.

Intelligence: Lopphore live solely upon basic instincts that keep them alive, however, they lack intelligence. If a predator takes a loppit for a pack the entire pack will go in search of the loppit. This usually leads the pack to near destruction as they try to take back the loppit. Usually they will subsist when they have recovered a piece of the loppit. They have no fear of predation and will walk right into the lair of any predator. Common non sentient creatures have been able to unconsciously farm the lopphore.

Farming: Farming Lopphore is best done by nomadic races, or those with the ability to offer them enough food to prevent them from trying to migrate. Wolvens are the most common lopphore farmers as well as the Gypsies and Romany who are constantly on the roads. Some nomadic non sentient predators have been known to follow Lopphore packs and protect them from other predators in an effort to keep their own food source.

If one wished to farm Lopphore this would be simple as moving in and finding a pack during the mating season and stealing away a pregnant female. Lopphores do not search out adult members that have been taken away. Usually a female from several packs needs to be taken as they are quite socially minded creatures and do not do well living alone. Once a farm pack has been formed the farmers only need to ensure there is food supplied to the pack members to keep them. Nomads will also set up an open nest wagon where the newest Loppits are kept. The pack will follow the nest wagon and therefore remain on the path that the farmers wish to keep them on. In times when they have no loppits to act as a lead for the Lopphores they will employ herding techniques and gently lead them, or they will tie the entire group together and to the back of a wagon to prevent them trying to diverge from a well known path.