The Forrik

The Forrik

The Forrik is a species that the Zloiyeh Karliki, an alien race famous for its zoos, introduced to Zlerin 141 years ago in an attempt to control the blue Nomadlers, which the Karliki thought were getting out of hand. The Forriks (measuring about 2 meters from head to tail) did not control the Nomadler population: Forriks don't like the taste of acid. Instead, the Forriks nearly caused the extinction of the Rumdlers. With superior size and strength, a Forrik could easily kill a Rumdler. As the Forrik population grew, the number of Rumdlers on the continent shrunk to only 103 within a year of the introduction of the Forrik. The Cheatler and Sneakler populations boomed, with almost no predators left, and their primary food source, Thrumblers, grew scarcer and scarcer due to overgrazing. The Karliki were alarmed, and they considered introducing another foreign species to control the population of Forriks, or spreading Forrik poison over Balota. They even thought about wiping out the entire ecosystem to stop the insane spread of the Forriks. Luckily, my people intervened, and suggested that the Karliki wait a few years and let the ecosystem fix itself. A year later, the Forrik population started to shrink: with almost no Rumdlers left, they didn't have the food to support a large population. Then something surprising happened: the Rumdlers changed their behavior. Instead of living and hunting alone, the Rumdlers began traveling together in packs like the Cheatlers. As a pack of 4 or 5, the Rumdlers could ward off a Forrik. Such packs even killed several juvenile Forrik individuals. As this strategy proved effective, Rumdler packs grew larger, until every Rumdler joined a pack, and every pack had over 7 members. With this new social idea, the Rumdlers caused a sharp decline in the Forrik population in less than 3 years. Forriks still hunted Rumdlers, but they only succeeded in killing one out of every ten they attempted. This decline in food brought the Forriks down to a viable population level. A year later, the two groups reached a balance, and both populations remained steady for the first time in over 6 years. The Cheatler population, with more predators present, also returned to a normal level, and the Thrumblers grew back to support the rest of the food web. The ecosystem had adjusted to the accept the invasive species without any interference from the Karliki.

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