Tritter

A tritter is a small carnivorous animal, native to Kerelia.

Type
Mammalian, troglobiont.

Habitat
Tritters are predominantly cave-dwelling, and will spend 3-4 months of every complete orbital cycle underground.

Physiology
An adult tritter can reach the height of 33-36cm and a length of 46-55cm, with a weight of 4.1-4.8kgs. Females are mostly indistinguishable from males. They are a light pink colour, and their skin is extremely sensitive to sunlight, so much so that they will limit any necessary time in the light to crepuscular periods. They are quadrupedal, with four strong, sinewy legs that grant them impressive speed and jumping ability. Their vision is binocular and they have a total of six sets of eyes, though having evolved to be cave-dwellers, they see best in the dark. Their olfactory system is about the equivalent of a domestic Earth canine, but with their speed, sharp, needle-like teeth and talons, they can rip through the flesh of any prey in a matter of seconds.

Behaviour
Tritters congregate in huge social groups during the breeding season. They retreat to a labyrinthine cave system beneath a mountain range approximately two kilometers from the LZ-1 site, and remain there for 3-4 months in total. It is believed that the initial survey party landed during one of these periods, and hence missed any trace of the creatures altogether. Their offspring stay within the caves with the adults until they are developed enough to venture outside with the entire group.

They are carnivorous, and during their breeding season they will predominantly subsist on a diet of crustacea, and other troglobionts such as flatworms and mollusca. Outside of breeding seasons they will supplement their diets with other jungle mammalia, while hunting together in smaller troops.

The most noted and important behaviour is their extreme aversion to technology, specifically anything that generates a frequency above 30 MHz. It will attract the attention of any tritter within a 1 km radius. They react violently and often exhibit confusion and pain when in close proximity. When threatened, tritters will rarely respond individually; they gather in super-groups for defense as well as breeding.

While humanoids have not been predated upon in the traditional sense by tritters, they are considered opportunistic feeders, and when in large groups present an overwhelming force.

Other notes
On Felicity Ellis' orders, LZ-1 and the colonisation project of the immediate area was abandoned. Efforts were later refocused on cultivating LZ-2, which is the coastal equivalent. There have recently been encounters with tritters reported beyond the LZ-1 boundary.