The Zwazz: A Perfect Animal

Ecosystem/Habitat

The Zwazz is an arthropod that is around 5 inches tall and lives for around 5 years. It lives in temperate forests, usually near clearings, and it sleeps inside lean-to shelters that it makes from tree bark using its claws and antennae-arms. The other species that it regularly interacts with are the geistvogel, the red jumping bug, baublockgrass, and the krieskant tree. During the day, one Zwaz will be found in each patch of grass.

Autotroph or Heterotroph? + Eating Habits

The Zwazz is a heterotroph, as it has to consume other organisms to gain energy. It’s main food sources are baublockgrass and red jumping bugs, although when faced with starvation it will eat krieskant tree bark.

Interactions with other Populations

The Zwazz is able to control the populations of the organisms it eats so that they can reproduce successfully and not have population die outs in areas with many Zwazzes. The Zwazz is eaten by geistvogels. It has a mutual symbiotic relationship with krieskant trees, as it uses its bark for shelter and it turn slathers the places on the trunk in which it took bark from with a titanium paste it creates with its feet. This paste makes the tree bark grow back stronger than it was before.

Defense and Activity

To protect itself from geistvogel attacks, a Zwazz has skin laced with titanium that can break beaks, and a Zwazz can root itself firmly into the ground. The Zwazz is active mainly during the daytime, and it stays awake for around 10 hours a day. It spends most of its day eating, but it will occasionally repair its lean-to, and once a year it meets up with a Zwaz of the others sex to mate. Females lay 20 eggs each year, starting when they are 2 years old, and babies fend for themselves from birth.

Adaptations

The Zwazz slathers the titanium paste produced in its feet into baublockgrass and nearby soil during the day and into krieskant trees and nearby soil while sleeping. This makes the plants and soil as strong on the outside as the Zwazz, and keeps the Zwaz firmly rooted in the ground in case of geistvogel attack. The Zwaz also has developed by natural selection strong but flexible antennae that it uses as arms (it can also peek around trees to spot geistvogels due to the antennae), sharp claws that it uses to tear bark off krieskant trees, a green body that is used as camouflage in grass, and brown eyes that is used as camouflage in trees.

Taxonomy

Domain: Eukaryote

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

There is no similar real-life animals, so after this the taxonomy is made up.

Class: Bipoda

Order: Antennae

Family: Futale

Genus: Titana

Species: Zwazeria

Binomial Nomenclature/Scientific Name

Titana Zwazeria

Picture of the Zwazz and its ecosystem: