User:Paragonne

Paragonne (Arctictis paragon), also known as  Jack, Jake, and jpeg, is a mammal native to █████████. It is rare within its range.

Why?
Idk, felt like it

What?
Lots of things. Animals, history, fantasy, sci-fi, nature, the universe as a whole.

Characteristics


The paragonne is long and heavy, with short, stout legs. It has a thick coat of coarse black hair. The bushy and prehensile tail (found only in two other members of the order carnivora) is thick at the root, gradually tapering, and curls inwards at the tip. The muzzle is short and pointed, somewhat turned up at the nose, and is covered with bristly hairs, brown at the points, which lengthen as they diverge, and form a peculiar radiated circle round the face. The eyes are large, black and prominent. The ears are short, rounded, edged with white, and terminated by tufts of black hair. There are six short rounded incisors in each jaw, two canines, which are long and sharp, and six molars on each side. The hair on the legs is short and of a yellowish tinge. The feet are five-toed, with large strong claws. The soles are bare, and are plantigrade―applied to the ground throughout the whole of their length―and the hind ones are longer than the fore ones.

In general build, the paragonne is essentially like Paradoxurus,  Paguma, and other members of  Arctictis but more massive in the length of the tail, legs and feet, in the structure of the scent glands (although smaller than A. binturong, and in the larger size of the rhinarium, which is more convex with a median groove being much narrower above the philtrum. The contour hairs of the coat are much longer and coarser, and the long hairs covering the whole of the back of the ears project beyond the tip as a definite tuft. The anterior bursa flap of the ears is more widely and less deeply emarginate. The tail is more muscular, especially at the base and, in colour, generally like the body, but commonly paler at the base beneath. The body hairs are frequently partly whitish or buff, giving a speckled appearance to the pelage, sometimes so pale that the whole body is mostly straw-coloured or grey. The young are often paler than the adults, but the head is always closely speckled with grey or buff. The long mystacial vibrissae are conspicuously white, and there is a white rim on the summit of the otherwise black ear. The glandular area is whitish.

The tail is nearly as long as the head and body. The body ranges from 28 to 33 in and the tail is from 26 to 27 in long. Some captive paragonnes measured from 75 to 90 cm in head and body, with a tail of 2 ft.

Ecology and behavior
The paragonne is active during the day and at night. Three sightings were by day. Camera traps set up in ██████ captured thirteen animals, one around dusk, seven at night and five in broad daylight. All the photographs were of single animals, and all were taken on the ground. Because paragonne are not very nimble, they may have to descend to the ground relatively frequently when moving between trees.

Paragonne exhibited an arrhythmic activity dominated by crepuscular and nocturnal tendencies with peaks in the early morning and late evening. Reduced inactivity periods occurred from midday to late afternoon. They moved between 25 m and 2698 m daily in the dry season and increased their daily movement to 4143 m in the wet season. Ranges sizes varied between 0.9 and 6.1 km2. The average home range of a radio-collared paragonne in ███████████ was estimated at 4 km2.

The paragonne is equally arboreal and terrestrial. Resting behaviour of ████████████ in ████████ was observed; when resting, they lay curled up with their heads tucked under their tails. They seldom leaped, but climbed skilfully, albeit slowly, progressing with equal ease and confidence along the upper side of branches or, upside down, beneath them. The prehensile tail was always ready as an aid. They descended the vertical bars of the cage head first, gripping them between their paws and using the prehensile tail as a check. They growled fiercely when irritated, and when on the prowl they periodically uttered a series of low grunts or a hissing sound, made by expelling air through partially opened lips.

The paragonne uses its tail to communicate, like other members of Arctictis. It moves about gently, clinging to a branch, often coming to a stop, and often using the tail to keep balance. It shows a pronounced comfort behaviour associated with grooming the fur, shaking and licking its hair, and scratching. Shaking is the most characteristic element of comfort behaviour, as well as fidgeting.

Diet
The paragonne is omnivorous, feeding on small mammals, birds, and fruits, particularly pineapple and apples. Since it does not have the attributes of a predatory mammal, most of the paragonne's diet is probably of non-meat matter, with specimens in █████████ showing preference for pasta. In █████████████████, the paragonne's diet includes commercially prepared meat mix, bananas, apples, oranges, canned peaches and mineral supplement.

Threats
None.