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The New Hope Clutch is hatching! And to everyone's surprise a White has spilled onto the sands after the combined help of the candidates freed it! To top it all off a huge pride of felines is attacking the Weyr during the Hatching! Will all the babies survive? What about the people and Dragons of the Weyr? So far one Bronze has been killed, and Hikari has nearly been murdered herself by the blood thirsty cats, only escaping by pure luck!

This, is Maori Weyr. The home of the last few left behind after the great Evacuation, and the few who will not forget their ties to the old world, Earth. Will you join our ranks? Or flee back North, where comfort and the security of many Weyrs lies.

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Introduced Species; Flora and Fauna
Topic Started: Jun 20 2011, 06:33 PM (222 Views)
Event Admin

Content
1. Avians
2. Mammals
3. Aquatic and Insect
4. Flora
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Avians

The first Earth creature to be born on Pern were chickens. Geese and ducks were next to be hatched out. The fertilized turkey ova failed to mature, but the other types of barnyard fowl were doing well enough that the veterinarians were not displeased to have lost only one species. Doves and pigeons hatched out, but between wherries and tunnel snakes, neither species lasted long enough to mate.

Wild Fowl: A small edible avian resembling its ancestor the Terran ring-neck quail. Extremely rare in the North and going extinct in the South due to predation. Some farmers that have a particular like for this bird though keep them in captivity under guard by dogs trained not to eat them.

Geese: A long necked, domestic avian known to be bad tempered, but quite tasty if cooked properly. They are not common in the North, due to the difficulty in raising them, specifically in keeping them from wherries. However Southern cotholders, because of the abundance of trained firelizards and whers, have been able to raise large flocks of them.

Chickens:
Small domestic avians used for both meat and eggs. Not common in North due to difficulty in raising them. They are very common in the south though, so common that they are sometimes used as food for young Dragons.

Duck: Domestic water fowl that are not common in the North due to difficulty in raising them, but they are fairly common in the south.

This text is © to AngelFire and Maori Weyr (Ichigo)
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Mammals

Domestic Feline: Descendants of the Terran tabby-cat, cats were thawed out and began to produce litters within weeks. They are similar to Terran cats but are about twice as big with thicker fur. Short haired varieties are being experimented with in the South. Useful in controlling the numbers of tunnelsnakes, crawlers, and other pests. Called felines or cats. Use of them as pets is more common in the south than the north.

Domestic Canine: Descendants of the Terran dog. Used to guard homes, herd livestock, turn spits or even as small pack animals. They also help keep vermin like tunnelsnakes out of holds and homes. Called canines or dogs. The chosen breed of dog was a ferret-dog, a Jack Russel terrier type that would kill the snakes that were attacking the nomal folk who slept in the open air. Later, the dogs were employed to chase and kill tunnel snakes. The DLG also shows a picture of a sheperd-type breed though it does not mention it.

Runnerbeast: The descendant of the Terran horse. Strong but fairly small horses were bred, blending Connemara and Welsh strains for riding. Shire horses were bred as draft animals and for the gypsy wagons. Used as transportation and as pack animals mostly. Have generally denser bones, larger eyes and ears (some say because of the use of mule DNA), and larger heart and lungs than the extinct Terran horse. Called runners, runnerbeasts, horses, or equines.

Draftbeast: Descendants of the Shire Draft horse. Big heavy beasts with mild temperaments. Called Draftbeast, draft runner, Draft Horse, or draft runnerbeast.

Draybeast: Descendants of the Terran donkey. Cheaper and more durable than runners, and therefore used extensively by smaller cotholders. A few herds of them run wild in the grassland areas of the South, and have adapted with shorter tawny coats and splayed hooves. Called Draybeasts, or donkeys, males are jacks, females are jennets.

Cotter’s Cross-Beast: These animals are crosses between runnerbeasts and draybeasts, and come in two types: Mules and hinnies. Mules are the result of a cross between a male donkey and a female horse, which is the more common mating, and are larger than most hinnies or horses with a calmer, steadier nature. Hinnies are the result of a cross between a female donkey and a male horse, and are usually smaller than mules with a more “horse-like” high spirit, which makes them more prone to get “spooked.” Mules and hinnies have mostly similar features: a straight neck, longer thinner flanks, thick hunches, large hooves, long donkey ears, a tail like a horse, and an unusual call that sounds like a cross between a horse’s whiney and a donkey’s bray described as “Whinee-aw ah aw.” Mules and hinnies are almost always infertile, and must be bred from horses and donkeys to replenish the population. However, the early colonists were trying to genetically engineer lines of horses and donkeys that, when bred together, would produce fertile offspring nearly ninety percent of the time. Some off those lines still exists in the South, and beastcrafters are experimenting with them. Called Cotter’s Crosses, Cross-beasts, mules, or hinnies.

Burdenbeast: Descendants of the Terran llama. Used for both pack animals and for wool production. Used less in the South than the North. A wild southern type lives in the mountains surrounding the Arolos Protectorate. Called Burdenbeasts or llamas.

Bovine: A type of herdbeast descended from Terran cattle. There are both milk and beef cattle. Have denser bones, and bigger heart and lungs. There are two varieties of bovine, the Southern and the Northern. Southern bovines, descended from the animals left behind during the first evacuation from Southern, have long horns, short lightly colored fur, and splaying hooves. Northern bovines have been bred into many varieties, but are generally heavy with short curving horns, and longer fur. Called bovines, cows, or herdbeasts.

Ovine: A type of herdbeast descended from Terran sheep. Used for meat, wool and milk. Wild Southern varieties live in the grasslands, hills, and mountains. Called either ovines or sheep. Males are called rams and females are called ewes.

Caprine: A type of herdbeast descended from Terran dairy and meat goats. Pernese varieties have tightly curling horns and long wooly coats, except in the South where coats are short. Used these days for milk, meat and wool. Wild varieties live in Southern alongside the wild ovines. Called caprines or goats. Males are called bucks and females does.

Porcine: A type of small herdbeast descended from Terran swine. The pigs were useful as disposal systems, transforming slops into protein-rich meat. Since not as many pigs were bred as other herd animals, pork came to be regarded as a special treat. In both North and South they have evolved to resemble the wild Terran boar, with thick bristly hair and short sharp horns. Called porcine, pigs, or hogs. Males are called boars and females are called sows.

Wild Feline: The creator of the grubs also experimented with cheetah fetuses, trying to produced a mentasynth-enhanced feline that would kill tunnel snakes and other dangerous creatures. He was familiar enough with the Eridani equations to know that cats reacted poorly to mentasynth, but he recklessly ignored that knowledge. The animals escaped after killing him and wild descendents now roam the Southern Continent. They are empathic enough to anticipate your next move, but not empathic enough to not want to taste the sweet tang of your flesh. (Not to be confused with domestic felines (cats) that have gone feral, which are not wild, but feral.)

This text is © to AngelFire and Maori Weyr (Ichigo)
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Aquatic and Insect

Shipfish/Dolphin: A genetically altered breed of dolphins, sometimes called shipfish, accompanied humans to Pern. These dolphins had greatly increased intelligence, including a degree of psychic ability, and had developed means of communicating with humans. Unlike many of the other animals that accompanied humans, dolphins took to their new home well. They were trained to come to the sound of Dolphin Bells and helped troubled sailors in the oceans. Unfortunately, contact between dolphins and humans soon deteriorated, and for much of Pernese history they were not known to the human population.

Fish: Despite the biological diversity in the seas the colonists did bring along some species of fish. These include goldfish (pets) and many other species of fish. Some were released into freshwater lakes and rivers while others were released in the oceans. Some species didn't thrive but most did.

Gossamer Spinners: Imported species of spider whose silk can be gathered and spun like silkworm silk, though not quite as fine.


This text is © to AngelFire and Maori Weyr (Ichigo)
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Flora

Most of the plants introduced by Pernese colonists are providers of food, fiber or medicine. Most grains, vegetable crops, and fruit trees were imported to Pern, as were a wide variety of herbs and fiber plants such as flax and cotton. Notably, the Pernese lack chocolate and coffee plants.

The botanists raised seedlings of all Earth trees in the hydroponic labs. The gingko and cottonwood trees did well in open plains, breaking the ground and providing shelter for the oak and pine seedlings planted in their shade. Ash, rowan, and scrub pine went into the higher reaches, and willow trees grew on the wet river banks.

Earth-type grass was adapted for the animals to eat until they were sufficiently used to Pernese grassoid. In the Ninth Pass, isolated patches of grass still survive on the Southern Continent. Many types of Earth and First Centauri trees reseeded themselves on grubbed ground and can still be found scattered among the Pernese types.

All of the types of Terran grains and legumes did well in the rich native soil. The first crops planted were fodder for the newly bred herds of imported grazers. Packaged organisms that would react symbiotically with the local bacteria were introduced into the soil to make native grasses palatable to the imported animals. The concentrations of boron, rendered inactive, simply passed through their digestive systems.

Mushrooms were raised by the colonists side by side with edible native fungi in the caves that riddled the palisade overlooking the Jordan River. Apples, pears, wine grapes, and numerous other fruits adapted easily to the Pernese soil.

All the medicinal and cooking herbs, among them tarragon, rosemary, lovage (for coughs), borage, thyme, coriander, nutmegoid bark from Firts Centauri (Earth nutmeg didn't translate well), willow for headaches, and hazel for the skin, were grown from seed drawn from the agronomy stores, and thrived in Pernese soil.

Though treats were rare as the supplies dwindled, the bakers created little hand-sized one-crust pies for the children from bits of sweet dough and berries. Survivor species such as blueberries (which make the most popular bubblies), blackberries, raspberries, and gooseberries still survived in later passes.

It was a spacer tradition to begin distilling liquor as soon as possible when reaching a new planet. It became a measure of every holder or each expedition to make "quikal" almost immediately. The administration trusted the colonists not to use plants that had not been checked for toxicity, but those fruits that had tested safe went promptly into the stills. Some of the imported fruits had a very high sugar content and made enormously powerful quikal. The local fruit made potable drinks, and everyone traded crocks of his or her particular brew.

This text is © to AngelFire and Maori Weyr (Ichigo)
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