Meat:  90 kg
Price (for food):  §600 at market
Price (for working):  §1,200
Price (for pet):  §3,000 
Load:  100 kg
Pull Power (MW):  0.00015

Hit Record

Description

Rumors of this terrifying animal have been told and retold by Martian canal pilots for years but were largely discounted as native superstition.  Recently a French expedition actually killed one and returned with its carcass.  It is apparently a scavenger, although, like the roogie, it will attack if hungry.  It consists of a central body chamber, roughly like a slightly flattened and elongated sphere, covered with fat and a rubbery, gray-brown hide.  It moves by means of four large, heavy flipper feet and grasps its prey with four long tentacles.  It appears to eat small creatures alive and whole when forced to hunt, but it will inject a poison through its mouth stinger into larger prey and take the carcass back to its lair for consumption at its leisure.  Fortunately, this poison is now known not to be fatal to Earth humans, although it does cause unconsciousness followed by a period of disorientation and weakness.  (One member of the French expedition was stung and carried off to the creature's lair; he later revived, escaped, and was finally found wandering, tired, battered, and partially incoherent, in the swamp.