Finned Snapper

This delicate predator, with their elegant airfoil body and streamlined legs, snaps up their main prey, the jetdarter, with amazing ease. Finned snappers live around the edges of Darwin IV's pocket forests, where jetdarter hives are to be readily found. They are cooperative predators, often hunting in pods of six or eight individuals. The finned snapper is capable of impaling up to half a dozen flyers on their single, jointed hunting arm. This arm, which extends to about two meters, is so quick that they virtually disappear when they are is striking. They are also rather dexterous; a snapper can spend about 10 minutes working a fallen 'darter out of a seemingly inaccessible crevice. The grill-like frontal region of the finned snapper's head serves to channel air (as well as scent) into the finned portions of the animal's torso; it is then forced through small escape holes on the trailing edges of the fins, enabling the creature to skim so lightly when they run that, at times, it is wondered if their feet actually touch the ground.