Gacuan

The gacuan (pronounced /gəˈkwɑn/) is a six-limbed mammal native to the eastern jungles of Dadauar. Gacuans are scavengers, feeding on the fluids from dead and decomposing animal and vegetable matter, which they absorb through pores on their skin.

Physical Description

A gacuan does not have a separate head and body, just a single round head/body covered with thick fur that leaves its limbs bare. Gacuans' fur is usually gray or brown, though it can tend toward blue or green; the skin is green or gray, or sometimes red or black. An adult gacuan's body is about two or three feet in diameter, though the fur can make it look up to a foot larger; the arms are about two or three feet long.

A gacuan has two oval eyes set into the front of its head/body, usually gold in color. Its nostrils and earholes are relatively large, but hidden by its thick fur and not normally visible. The gacuan has no mouth.

Diet

The gacuan gets its nourishment by absorbing liquids through pores in its skin. Its usual food is the putrescent fluids given off by decomposing biological matter. In order to ensure themselves an adequate supply of such matter, gacuans frequently collect corpses and organic debris in hoards known as rotpits, where they leave them to fester and decay. When hungry, a gacuan partly submerges itself in the fetid liquid in the rotpit, the better to absorb its contents. Inevitably, some of the liquid sticks to the creature's fur, giving the gacuan a horrible stench that leads to its alternate name of the "stinkball". The impregnation of the gacuan's fur with rotting matter does seem to serve an adaptive purpose, however, as it protects the creature from predators—few carnivores have any stomach for such a repulsive meal.

Habitat

Gacuans thrive best in tropical forests, plentifully supplied both with organic matter the creatures can carry to their rotpits and with suitable locations for the rotpits to be created. Although their rotpits may be located on the ground, and they may also sometimes descend to the forest floor to collect material for them, gacuans are otherwise almost entirely arboreal, swinging between trees and vines with their six prehensile hands. They sleep in large open nests made from plant matter cemented together with sap; a gacuan nest may house only a single creature, or may be big enough for five or six of the creatures to sleep together.