Snark

"Some children are puzzled with it. Of course you know what a Snark is? If you do, please tell me..."

- Cacap, File Leader

Once regarded as a myth, the Snark is a creature native to Balaho, and one of the few organisms that has done well in the catastrophic climate change the planet had undergone over the past hundred thousand years. Holding a special place in unggoy mythology as a demon, original Unggoy culture treated it as a semi-spiritual demonic figure. Since the planet's incorporation into the Covenant, Snarks have become renown among the alien conglomerate community as one of the fiercest predators in the galaxy, after the Jabberwocky.

Seemingly descended from a reptillian ancestor, the Snark is an elusive creature, and very little is known about its behaviour. What is known is that it has an extremely advanced camouflage technique, altering the pigmentation of its scales to blend in with its surrounding habitat. While it is fully capable of producing a range of colours, from jungle green to oceanic blue, its most common colour is white and brown, blending in with the snowy tundra it makes its habitat.

Unusual for non-synapsid reptiles, the Snark has developed endothermy, keeping its body temperature high and allowing it greater activity than its cold-blooded prey, Shade Crabs. Hunting these creatures in the shallow rivers and streams resulting from glacial melting, they possess long claws and powerful forearms to snag these creatures from the water, powerful, beak-like jaws for crushing the shells and allowing access to the soft fleshy innards, and a long tail for balancing. The closest analog found are Terran bears that annually catch migrating salmon, though the Snark relies on other prey, such as the Jubjub Bird that inhabits the snow.

Little else about the Snark's hunting habits is known. Abandoned carcasses of Tove's and turtle-like Rath's have been found on the ice, sometimes perfectly intact, hinting that hunting is not only for consumption. Similarly, no Snarks have ever been seen in groups larger than two, and even then only in fierce and sometimes lethal territorial aggression, often killing the weaker of the two. It is unknown whether this territoriality relents during a mating season, or indeed whether one exists, and its mating and parental behaviours therefore remain a mystery.

Attempts by Sangheili and Jiralhanae have been made numerous times to domesticate Snark's, and though they have brought their owners immense regard, these attempts have almost universally ended in failure. No known Snarks have ever been trained beyond limited kill and pursuit capabilities, and therefore their use as trained guard animals is more common. A single Snark has been known to tear apart dozens of attackers single-handedly before the camp's warriors can respond, and merely the knowledge that a Snark awaits its next meal is enough to deter all but the most determined of attackers.

Historically, Unggoy have regarded the Snark in an almost demonic light. Rumours of Snarks taking Unggoy from their beds as they sleep, or preying upon young Unggoy, have all been partially confirmed. Snarks have been known to stalk silently through a village, undetected by even the most alert Unggoy scouts, until it has claimed its victim, fighting its way out. Methods of detection vary. Extreme bright light confuses the Snarks camouflage ability, and guard lights crisscrossing a villages perimeter have cut Snark attacks by a drastic 98%. Other methods, such as to seek it with thimbles, care, forks and hope or 'charm it with smiles and soap' have all been debunked as superstition, and since the Covenant occupation of Balaho, traditional ritualistic shamans have been fed to trained Snarks in attempts to render their bumbling and inaccurate proffession to extinction. Entire communities of rebellious Unggoy have been fed to Snarks, often at the same time, in the gladiator pits of Sangheili-occupied settlements as entertainment. While detecting a Snark allows guards to respond quickly enough to avoid casualties, and is often enough to drive the Snark away to better hunting grounds, the only known way to drive all Snarks away from a region is to 'threaten its life with a railway share', after which all Snarks, as well as a number of other vital fauna, will flee the area. This is a double-edged sword, however - without the Snark, overpopulation of its prey will virtually destroy the area within decades, rendering it even more barren and uninhabitable than before.

Snark skin is a much-sought after commodity in the Covenant Black Market, especially among the Kig-Yar and Jiralhanae, who believe it to hold protective properties. Certainly, the shimmering scales of a skinned Snark appear intimidating when one puts one's thoughts to the effort required to capture, kill, skin and sell such an item, but the Snark skin loses its camouflage abilities after death, and has no other protective abilities. They are popularly sought after as an anti-assassination aid. No known account of a Snark skin saving its wearer has ever surfaced.