DOD Bestiary: Jonker, Karkadan

Common Name: Jonker, Karkadan
Pronounced: (John-kur), (Car-kuh-dann)
Classification: Jonkerotherium amphibius (Amphibious Jonker’s-beast), Karkadan monoceros (One-horned Karkadan)
SGOC Rank: Megafauna

Length: 15 feet (jonker), 11 feet (karkadan)
Height: 6 feet at the shoulder
Weight: 2.8 tons (jonker), 2 tons (karkadan)
Diet: Omnivore (jonker), Herbivore (karkadan)
Social Structure: Solitary
Home Planet: Earth
Distribution: Africa
IUCN Status: Near Threatened (jonker), Vulnerable (karkadan)

Description:

The jonker and the karkadan are two examples of the megafauna that now inhabit the vast wilderness of post-Cycle Africa. Any adventurer travelling through the African bush should be wary of these animals.

The jonker or "ant-bear" is a hippo-sized reptomammal best known for its panda-like coloration. Imagine a shaggy hippo with the head of a long-nosed bear, and you’d have a jonker. This beast uses its long jaws and interlocking incisors to strip leaves and pluck fruit, propping itself on its short tail as it squats upright to feed from low-hanging branches; the jonker is best known, however, for its taste for termites, ants, and even the eusocial river crabs found throughout east Africa's waterways, tearing open their nests and lapping up the occupants with a sticky tongue almost four feet in length. Jonkers are known to scavenge and steal carcasses from other carnivores, including lions and dinosaurs. The natives and most predators refuse to eat it; some zoologists suspect that the jonker actually sequesters toxins from its food and stores them in its flesh, which may explain its vibrant warning coloration.

The karkadan is a rhino-like herbivorous mammal descended from the elephant relative Arsinoitherium; the karkadan has only one horn, but it is an enormous, lance-like structure layered thickly with keratin, giving it an elaborate texture of pits, ridges, and grooves that is unique to each individual. Karkadans wander aimlessly and do not mark out territorial boundaries, although if two of these brutes cross paths they’ll fight ferociously to determine dominance. Karkadans have elephantine legs but can move quite quickly for their size which, combined with their short tempers and formidable horn, makes them a dangerous prospect to hunt. Many native African tribes revere the karkadan for its tenacity; in some tribes a boy’s rite of passage into manhood involves traveling with a wild karkadan for a season, all without being gored or trampled.