The Hutan'kera is a mammalian predator native to the continent of Kamuekiko on New Tython. Solitary animals, they live primarily within forests along mountain ranges such as the Blue Mountains, and are rarely seen by observers despite being well-known to native Harakoan populations.
Evolution and History
Though rarely seen in the wild, both remains and fossils have been recovered, suggesting that this creature evolved on the continent of Kamuekiko. First sighted in the fossil record following evidence of an extinction event that wiped out several predatory species in the area, its ancestors were scavengers who eventually filled an empty niche in the food web. Evolving to become ambush predators, they grew large and powerful without competition from greater species to hold them down, gradually becoming a dominant force in the foothills of many mountain regions. Fossil evidence points to migrations of the species, lending credibility to the possibility of subspecies in other regions, though no such beasts have yet been found.
Hutan'kera have been responsible for the deaths of many large animals over the eons, despite their relatively low number as a species - estimates place their total number between four and eight thousand. While some Harakoan tribes such as the Iwu Gioki feature them in legends as spirits of nature's wrath, others venerate them as forest protectors, while still a few others are known to go up against them as a religious rite of passage. Few warriors survive such encounters, and it is well-known in the area that hunting a hutan'kera is a task for a large group.
The name 'Hutan'kera' means "Howling shadow" in Giokese; it is theorized that other tribes have their own names for the creature, and in Harakose it is commonly referred to as 'Bo'kan,' or "Jungle beast." Its history among the tribes as an expert predator and dangerous foe has led it to becoming a threat to many species, while its elusive and solitary nature have lent it a presence in the myths and stories of many tribes. The first documented encounter between a hutan'kera and a Jedi Knight of Odan-Urr was in 39 ABY, when an aggressive male died of lightsaber wounds during an expedition in a Blue Mountain pass.
Biology and Description
Hutan'kera often drag their kills up into trees before eating them.
Hutan'kera are huge beasts, typically nine or even ten feet tall and weighing up to half a ton. They are tall, bulky beasts with hunched backs and massive, six-foot arms. These end in paws with huge claws, sometimes as long as eight or ten inches and thick enough to grip while the beast climbs or attacks prey. Coated in pale, translucent fur that looks off-white when observed, the skin beneath actually ranges from dark gray to pitch-black, a combination that allows them to hide well in dark forests or misty mountain ranges. The bulk of their muscle mass is found in their short, thick legs, their massive arms, their chests, and their huge shoulders and back muscles; these allow them to deliver crushing blows, or to hurl themselves across the ground or through foliage at great speeds when fleeing or pursuing prey.
Their skulls are thick, with short snouts and massive teeth, particularly their bottom incisors - these often grow long enough to extend past their black eyes. These eyes, though small in contrast to the rest of the beast, have recently been discovered to have extra lenses for low-light vision, not unlike those of a jungle cat. That said, it is the creature's round skull and the wide chambers within that have revealed that the beast uses a form of echolocation to hunt and move about at night. Aiding the creature in this are various bone spines that protrude from the animal's spine, which are in fact hollow and can be vibrated at low frequencies. This produces a constant, low-level sound that few species can detect, but one that illuminates even the darkest areas for hunting.
The hutan'kera's skin and fur are very thick, so much so that blades, blunt objects, and even blaster bolts have limited effects against them without precision or repeated assaults. Complicating the issue is the beast's thick rib cage, which increases defensibility of the animal's internal organs. Within this ribcage is a massive set of lungs, which allow the beast both to hold its breath for absolute silence for upwards of ten minutes, or to release ear-shattering, reverberating bellows and howls that can be heard for kilometers. An interesting feature of the hutan'kera's skull is a system of cartilage, fluid-filled chambers, and bone barriers; these shield the creature's delicate echolocation from its own noise. Their ears also seal when they do this to protect them from ambient noise. This allows them to howl at huge volumes, a tactic that both flushes out prey and intimidates challengers of their own species.
One interesting fact of the hutan'kera is its adrenaline production, which allows it to, when in a rage, utilize stored fat and increase its heart rate. This allows it to throw itself into a blinding rage, allowing it to shrug off impact damage and even most penetrative wounds without slowing down or fleeing. Such berserk aggression allows it to take down large prey with little difficulty, though this makes a feeding hutan'kera especially lethal as their rage typically takes time to subside.
Altogether, the hutan'kera is a massive and intimidating predator, and nothing short of coordinated hunting, advanced, high-powered weaponry, or the onset of challenging members of its own species can truly threaten them.
Behavior
Remains such as these often mark hutan'kera kill sites.
Territory
Hutan'kera are solitary, roaming beasts, and while they will on occasion meet with others they typically avoid one another. Though capable and dangerous on the ground, they are most at home in the treetops, and will often travel kilometers without touching the ground. This makes it unlikely to encounter them in the open, which, coupled with the dense foliage of Kamuekiko, makes them difficult to track. Evidence of their hunting has been found many times, however, with the destroyed carcasses of animals and the odd Harakoan found at the bases of trees. Often, the animal will drag its prey up into the tree with it, where corpses will hang for days or weeks until disturbed; such corpses are reliable signs that one has entered a hutan'kera's territory.
Hunting
Hutan'kera will typically gorge themselves in the summer months of New Tython's seasonal patterns, after the mating season and while most of the herbivorous life on the continent is fattening itself and growing stronger. Developing a thick coat of fat during this time, they will then become much more geared toward ambush for the remaining three seasons of the year. During this time, they utilize their large lungs and specialized organs to slow their metabolism greatly, surviving for days or even weeks without food as they hang from trees and await large animals. This is one reason for their elusiveness; though their kills are easy to find in the summer months, this lack of overt hunting makes sightings in any other month rare. While this does reduce their impact on the ecosystem, it also makes them more dangerous for careless harakoans.
Mating and Social Structure
Hutan'kera mate once every three years; though normally solitary, they will congregate by the hundreds in specific locales, where males will compete in contests of violence and present kills to females for the right to breed. These contests often end in death, meaning that larger, stronger, and more dangerous hutan'kera will typically produce multiple litters of offspring while weaker males are eliminated from the gene pool early, thus making future generations even more lethal.
Once mating has been completed, female hutan'kera will isolate themselves in a mountain den or cave, defending it with all of their rage until their pups have been born. Interestingly, while litters can range from one to five pups, they will almost always include at least one male; it is thought this tendency evolved during times of scarcity following the extinction event that led to their evolution, thus ensuring that they survived while other species did not. Male pups will stay with their mother for up to a year, while females remain for three or four; unfortunately, both male and female pups are quite vulnerable in their first few years and are quite fatty, leading to some cannibalism and predation by their own and other species.
Young males will often pair or team up while young, an interesting behavior observed by harakoans and recently confirmed by scientists, and will spend years defending and aiding one another in the hunt. Unfortunately for most, these pairings will always result in one member becoming stronger and more dominant over the others, and will end in clashes that often leave one or more males injured, if not crippled or dead. This group behavior tends to last for five years, after which point the animals are fully grown and assume their typical solitary behavior.
Tribal Impact and Significance
Mythology
Hutan'kera are massive, intimidating predators and are nigh-unkillable for less than several well-armed harakoans; thus, they have earned a special place in the myths and legends of many tribes. The Iwu Gioki venerate and fear them as spirits of the Great Father's wrath, and are the tribe within the Tribal Alliance that has the most experience with the creature; they believe that the beasts are meant to protect forbidden and sacred places, and thus their territory has been widely avoided by the Gioki. Their common name - hutan'kera - is actually a rare example of the Giokese language in regular use rather than the more-common Harakose pidgin.
While the Gioki revere them, other, smaller tribes outside the Treaty such as the Iwu Yatzai and the Iwu Momoka fear them, and place them as antagonistic monsters in their own myths. Both cultures, though small, isolated, and unimportant to the larger political sphere of the planet, place the creatures as heralds of woe and misfortune; these tribes both hunt herds primarily in the summertime, and thus are commonly set against hungry animals possessed by adrenal rage. One tribe in particular considers them all to be the avatars of one jungle god, and routinely sends a lone hunter on a spiritual journey to kill one on his own. Their myths state that the hunter's death appeases the jungle god, while if a hunter ever succeeds in his fight, it will lead to a golden age for their tribe.
Hunting
Hutan'kera are robust creatures that largely hunt during the summer months of a given year, and because of their method of ambush hunting from the treetops they will often target slow, sickly, or wounded animals. While their hunting style is often brutal, it has a way of cleaning disadvantaged animals from the populations of herds, while also driving animals away from foliage and into the open. Several harakoan tribes take advantage of these behaviours, and are better able to hunt because of them. Roaming hutan'kera are also a sign of oncoming scarcity, and some tribes have used their movements and migration patterns to better predict where to live; thus, they are beneficial in that they help tribes to avoid famine and drought.
Recently, after the killing of one such animal by a Jedi, facts about their biology have been revealed through study of the cadaver; almost simultaneously, the Jedi of the Arca Praxeum have established international poaching laws, ensuring their exotic and valuable furs don't see these integral creatures become endangered due to hunting by colonists and outsiders.
Tribal Politics and Warfare
The corpses of hutan'kera kills often can be found among the branches, or at the bases, of trees; thus, several harakoan tribes have caught on to this behavior, and will hoist animal husks into trees around their villages to discourage rival tribes from infringing on their territory. This has the added benefit of warding off most other members of the species, though doing so too liberally risks a large and territorial male misinterpreting the corpses as a sign of fertile hunting grounds, and approaching to make a challenge.
In more overt displays of tactics, harakoans will make efforts to cut down or burn trees in specific areas that hutan'kera are known to frequent, thus ensuring that they have safe passage and are less likely to be ambushed. More drastic measures taken against them see the clearing of wide swaths of forest to ensure they do not lurk nearby, while some tracts of forest are left standing and seeded with herd animals, which will slowly be migrated closer and closer to enemy territory - thus increasing the likelihood of a hutan'kera rampage in enemy territory.
Because of their mythological significance and strength, the bodies of fallen hutan'kera will often be dragged from their mating sites; many tribes believe that eating their flesh lends their strength to the consumer, while their bones are often used as weapons or armor for similar reasons. Their pelts, meanwhile, are coveted as signs of strength and influence by many tribes, both due to the difficulty of obtaining them and to the fact that they deteriorate rapidly when not properly removed and treated. Their furs are an extravagant status symbol, while leather made from their thick hide makes superior, if difficult-to-make and rare, armor in combat. The trade of either item is often a process of great ceremony, and hutan'kera pelts have been used extensively over the course of history to seal pacts, settle disputes, and encourage alliances between tribes.