Post Three: The Blue-Snouted Twumps

 BLUE SNOUTED TWUMP

Appearance: Walking haystacks
Food Source: Weeds
Geographical Location: Midwest of the United States
Habitat: Grassy plains, fields, prairies
Intelligence: Average
Status: Real

     One of our inside sources brought news of a shocking sight in the Midwest of the United States. When we first heard about the Blue-snouted Twumps, we had assumed that it was one of the animals that Peet had fabricated to throw the government off his trail. Yet with first hand accounts given by one of our most trusted followers, as well as the detailed drawing (seen above) he managed to sit down and create upon finding that the battery in his camera was dead, we had no choice but to accept its existence. Now the question remains of how such a creature is biologically possible.

Green Sea Slug

     At first we believed that the mother twump was ingesting the grass seeds, extracting the chloroplast and then actually growing the plants from her skin. Previously, this shocking biological process had been seen only in green sea slugs, whose branching digestive system allows them to keep and grow the chloroplast from the algae they eat.
    However, given the entirely different digestive system of a twump (which resembles a cow), we felt that there had to be another explanation for the seemingly plant-like animal.

Three Toed Sloth

  Then it hit us. The most obvious and logical explanation. The twumps weren't growing the grass, the grass was growing on the twumps. That's right. The twump's notorious hygiene causes an form of algae to grow on their fur, giving them the appearance of being covered in grass. This form of camouflage is also found among sloths, who find that a green coloring allows them to blend in more to their leafy surroundings. While the twumps also use their green fur to remain inconspicuous in the vast expanse of grassland, their fur serves another purpose as well.

      As one can observe in the figure of the twump at the top of the page, its babies are resting comfortably on its back. The young twumps nibble at the algae on their mother's fur and in this way gain nutrients such as calcium, sodium, potassium that are important to a young twump's growth. As well as the nutritional aspect, the twumps ride on their mother's back as a form of protection seen in a number of other species, such as loons, primates and sloths, whose young are especially susceptible to predators. Baby twumps are most vulnerable to badgers, minks, prairie falcons, hawks and owls.
    Adult twumps are found to have few predators due to three main factors:
          1. Their resemblance to clumps of grass as a form of camouflage.
          2. Their rare or extremely slow locomotion (predators adept at spotting quick movements.)
          3. Their covering of grass masks their scent from predators
However some unlucky twumps are occasionally bumped into by bobcats or coyotes and made a meal out of.

Twump Food Web 
(click image to enlarge)