| Index | ||
| Prologue | ||
| The Roper Report | ||
| Introduction | ||
| Section 1 | ||
| Section 2 | ||
| Section 3 | ||
| Section 4 | ||
| Section 5 | ||
| Section 6 | ||
| Section 7 | ||
| Section 8 | ||
| Section 9 | ||
| Section 10 | ||
| Appendix A | ||
| Appendix B | ||
| Perry's Tale | ||
| Pictorial Record | ||
Wlko Habitat and Range
Sec.1.0 Wlko (pron. "WOOL-co" more or less; pl. wlkon; fem. wlkwy, pron. "wool-KWEE", pl. wlkwim). Vulcus vulcus, the "Giraffe Ocelots" of early explorers and common parlance. The genus Vulconidae comprises one species. It is manifestly felid, but of distinctive physiology.
Sec.1.1 Wlkon are found only in the Meggada Plains of Planet 3 Gamma Draconis. They dwell exclusively within sight of standing or flowing water. The fringes of the Meggada are dotted with lakes of all sizes, with stony or sandy beds, some of which interconnect, and fed by streams which are numerous if small. The central Meggada is arid. The regions surrounding the lake country are rolling savannah, dotted with arborescent vegetation ranging from single trees (sometimes very large) to groves and even sizable stands.
Note: at the western edge of the Meggada there is a distinct population, formerly known to science as Vulcus rupellis (Sawyer) ("crag(gy) wlko"), and subsequently as V. vulcus rupellis (Kondr.). But a genome run was unable to find any significant difference between the two gene pools, and the rupellids and vulcids are hardly to be regarded as races or even as subspecies–still less, distinct species. The populations are separated by the large arid district west of Great Granite Lake. There is little interaction between them; owing to the terrain, they maintain completely separate wlkatar (q.v. Sec.9 and App. C), and this separation doubtless accounts for the morphological differences which, however noticeable, are genetically trifling. (There is more genetic variation within the (larger) vulcid population than between vulcids generally and rupellids.)
The two groups do not in any case regard members of the other population as desirable mates: the vulcids regard the rupellids as crude (indeed, ruffianly), coarse, and oversexed. The rupellids have jokes, proverbs, and other traditions (Kondrashin Sec.3.01.a) that disparage the vulcids as effete, and seem to believe that vulcid females are eager for, and to an unseemly degree responsive to, the virility of rupellid males.
Sec.1.2 The beasts are semi-aquatic in habit, being thoroughly at home in water. The main adaptive trait seems to be their dense, velvety, and otter-like coat, impervious to water. They spend almost as much time in the water as on land, often actually sleeping while afloat, and even copulate in water. Some speculation attached to this last fact, until Murdoch noted (and others confirmed) that this seems to be practically limited to coupling between males, and Murdoch is probably accurate when he states that such intercourse is not strictly speaking behavioristic, nor does it hint at any evolutionary ontogeny: it is better taken as "horseplay" between co-mates that leads to copulation only adventitiously.
Sec.1.3 Diet: Omnivorous. Largely hunting/gathering, (small animals, birds, crabs, fish, and shrimp) with some cultivation of herbs valued for fragrance, seasoning, or supposed medicinal qualities. Nuts and fruits are gathered in season, as are bulbs and roots. Following contact with outsiders, some limited horticulture. Wlko brew a kind of kvass from the milk of a diminutive quasi-anthropomorphic equid, M. hipparion (Sec.Sec.4.1, Appendix A). It is very mildly intoxicating, and seems to be esteemed by the wlko mainly as a piquant and refreshing foodstuff rather than an intoxicant. Habitual over-indulgence in the substance for its psychotropic effects is unknown. In any case, they trade roughly half of what they brew back to the monuxes for more milk.