Snapdragons

Snapdragons are a native reptilian species bearing a strong resemblance to the green iguana. The name is a recent appellation by immigrants based on their appearance and feeding habits; natives know the lizards as trapjaws.

Appearance

The snapdragons are lizards, usually 3-5ft in length with most of that being their long tails. Their bodies are covered in tiny scales in shades of green tipped brown, some with dashes of yellow. During the fall and winter, their scales become more brown. Trapjaws have long bodies with short legs ending in five short-clawed digits. From their head down the length of their tail they sport a row of spines usually in shades of cream, brown, or red. On the top of their heads is a kind of white photosensory organ known as a parietal eye or third eye. This eye does not possess typical vision, but is instead used to sense changes in lighting from above and detect movement. Juvenile snapdragons lack spines, which grow in as they mature into adulthood. All trapjaws have a set of short, sharp teeth with small poison sacks near the roots. These are used for hunting. The snapdragons' tails can detach, a defense mechanism they utilize to escape from predators. The tail will grow back with time. In the winter, they often cluster in the vicinity of hot springs or underground pockets of sulfurous gas, relying on the heat from volcano vents and geothermic activity to avoid going into a seasonal torpor.

Habitat, Diet, and Behavior

Snapdragons prefer wooded areas, where they use the trees for hunting. Some are known though to favor water and wetlands, as the species has fairly strong swimming skills. A carnivorous species, their main diet consists of flutterflies. They also prey upon other insects and small birds or mammals. A trapjaw's preferred method of hunting is to find a good branch and stretch out, waiting in near-perfect stillness. They track flutterflies through the scent the airborne arachnids exude, finding a spot that seems to be a common travel route. A very patient hunter, snapdragons are known to wait hours before they might get any prey. Their coloring lends an amount of camouflage. The snapdragons sit with their mouths open, and the poison sacs in their mouths release a toxin. Mixing with the heat of their body and saliva, the toxin creates a strong pheromone that attracts the flutterflies and insects in general, along with the wiggling of the lizard's tongue. If other animals become curious and are lured in, the snapdragons will consume them equally happily. Once prey has entered its mouth or come close enough to be partially caught, the snapdragon will snap its jaws shut with a notable noise and swallow. This behavior is behind both of its sobriquets. For tiny mammals, the lizard uses its teeth in combination with the toxin to eat them. The toxin is a paralytic, although not strong enough to have any effect on larger animals and humanoids beyond a strong tingling sensation in the area of a bite. During the winter when most of the insect population goes to ground or dies off, like the flutterflies, the snapdragons tend to take a more active role in hunting. They'll hunt down more mammals and birds, and sometimes even find insect eggs. Their mostly brown coloring during the cold months helps them give the appearance of a dead fall branch, allowing them to get close enough to the creatures who fall to it's teeth and toxin. If food is scarce a snapdragon can go for a couple weeks and sometimes even a month without any food as long as they've fed well beforehand. The drawback is that this usually leaves them weak which makes hunting hard, as well as escaping predators.

Snapdragons are non-monogamous, not always mating with the same partner year-to-year. Courting occurs early in spring with mating happening by spring's end. A trapjaw lays a clutch of 2-4 eggs at a time, usually in the hollows of trees or small holes in rocks. When the eggs are laid, the parents take turns guarding them by curling around the clutch protectively. The eggs hatch some time around mid-summer. The first winter is the hardest for young snapdragons; since they're so small hunting is problematic and they're often the target of larger predators. Sometimes the parents will help their young through the winter, but not always. Most of the time one of the parents leaves when the eggs hatch, and with food scarce during the winter, the parents don't always have enough to spare for the young.

Snapdragons find themselves prey to larger predators like the artisan wolf and harvest bear. Petite thylacines occasionally go after grown snapdragons but prefer finding the smaller juveniles for food. The noble sea-eagle is also known to swoop down and snatch unaware snapdragons from the branch perches. The parietal eye helps alert them to airborne predators like the eagle. Snapdragons will try to threaten away predators by raising the spines on their back of by inflating the dewlap hanging beneath their chins. They bob and shake their heads hoping to confuse predators long enough to make an escape, and will bite if provoked or use their claws. If caught by the tail, they disconnect it, usually allowing escape. Sometimes they escape into the water if a large enough body is close by.

Additional Information

Snapdragons are occasionally tamed as pets by the island inhabitants, usually with the intent of curbing an insect problems around their home. They are non-aggressive but boring pets since they generally spend their time laying around in wait for prey and have little to no affectionate instinct towards humanoids. Many people find them unsatisfactory compared to other choices like the spotted kit fox, or Yuriban house cat.