-The woof-
Woofs are canids native to some faraway place.
There exists a wide variety of woofs that have widely differing traits depending on where they live.
For example the mountain woof is bigger and more aggressive than the other types of woof, and the sea woof lacks wings and instead have paws better suited for swimming and diving.
All woofs are born with stripes covering their bodies. The stripes fade as they age (tho in rare cases they don't), usually (but again not always) only leaving the stripes on their cheeks.
Woofs are omnivores, but depending on where they live, their diets tend to vary and lean towards being more or less carnivorous or herbivorous.
Even tho most species of woof have wings, they're mostly used to intimidate larger predators or to glide through the air rather than actually fly since way too much energy would be wasted in the process, tho woofs are capable of flying for shorter distances should they feel the need to do so.
The currently known species of woof are the mountain woof, the forest woof, the sea woof and the snow woof.
The mountain woof is the biggest of the bunch, and also the most aggressive one due to the harshness of their habitat.
They're the only species of woof known to actively hunt for large prey and to "prefer" fighting over fleeing/giving up their kills to other predators.
Their fur colors tend to be various shades of grey.
The mountain woof is one of the woof species that doesn't have a "permanent" nest.
Instead, they tend to travel around on the mountains hunting for goats or even reindeer. They're mostly carnivorous, tho they're known to also eat roots and/or insects when prey is scarce.
During cub-season, they travel down to the base of the mountain to have and raise their little ones since living conditions tend to be slightly more forgiving around those parts.
The sea woof is the second biggest.
They live close to the sea (or water in general, really), where they tend to swim around hunting or foraging for random edible stuff.
Unlike the other species of woof, they lack wings and are instead adapted to a more aquatic lifestyle.
They also share the forest woofs habit of collecting items to decorate their dens with. In the case of the sea woof, the objects are most likely to be sea shells, rocks and/or driftwood.
Their fur colors are usually rather sandy or tan.
It's also more common for woofs of this species to remain stripy as an adult, for some odd reason.
The forest woof is the second smallest. As the name would imply, they live in or around forests, particularly where these huge weird sap-leaking trees grow. They tend to build nests up in the branches of the trees and lick the sweet sticky sap.
In addition to tree sap, they're particularly fond of fruits, berries and nuts. They're also known to eat small mammals, bird eggs and insects, tho they tend to be the most herbivorous of the bunch.
Their furs are usually brown.
They have a strange habit of collecting various objects to keep around their nests/trees, like sticks, stones, bones, feathers, and so on.
Many woofs also end up having these odd stripes painted on their faces for reasons yet to be fully figured out.
Snow woofs are the rarest species of woof, to the point people are already suspecting they might have ended up going extinct.
They're also the smallest species of woof.
As the name would imply, they've decided to make their home in the unforgiving frozen wastelands to the north, and for that reason, they've got the thickest and fluffiest fur of the bunch.
They're the only strictly-carnivorous species of woof, as very few things manage to grow out there.
They mostly prey on small mammals and birds.
Because of how hopeless it is to live where they live, they're constantly on the move, pretty much like the mountain woof.
Their fur colors tend to be white or a very light shade of grey.
The sea and forest woofs tend to stick to one place most their lives if the area allows for it. Mountain woofs have semi-permanent territories in the sense that they usually return to roughly the same areas to have their cubs every year. Snow woofs are more or less constantly on the move.
When the cubs of the forest and sea woofs grow up, they tend to leave their packs to go search for a mate and place of their own.
Usually, several pairs of young woofs tend to settle down in one area, effectively forming a new pack in the process.
Mountains woofs are not much different, only that they tend to stay closer to "home", usually meaning it takes a lot longer for them to find a mate and settle down (by mountain woof standards).
Lone young mountain woofs are also really prone to accidents, meaning that far from all of them make it into adulthood.
Snow woofs stay on the move, even when the cubs are young, tho they tend to slow down quite a bit when the little ones are very young.
Even so, many cubs don't make it through their first month, either because they were born weak, and/or because the weather decided to be a jerk.
They also tend to have the same issue as the mountain woof, in the sense that few young woofs make it during their quests for a mate.
This all has lead to the numbers of this species declining at an alarming rate.
Depending on where they live, woofs tend to have a few natural enemies, usually bigger predators and/or large birds of prey.
With the exception of the mountain woof, woofs prefer to either try to scare off the threat, (in the case of forest and snow woofs usually by using their wings to appear larger), and if that's not successful, they'll happily surrender their kills and/or flee.
Here's an example of a forest woof:
(Artwork by Khaosdog)
