Size of newborn giant predators

when the females start to get a population Ratio of 2-1 they can start to get REALLY competitive, 7-1 would just get scary as hell.

As for child care, who said their breast can't function, some naga still might nurse their young, it might be delicate, but sure why not, as long as the nipple itself isn't WAY over sized.

asaenvolk wrote:

when the females start to get a population Ratio of 2-1 they can start to get REALLY competitive, 7-1 would just get scary as hell.

As for child care, who said their breast can't function, some naga still might nurse their young, it might be delicate, but sure why not, as long as the nipple itself isn't WAY over sized.

I don't think anyone has said that their breasts don't function. I know I never have. The main issue is that, when an egg-born pred hatches, it is already physically developed past the breastfeeding stage. A pred that is born from an egg can already move around and eat solid food straight out of the egg. Its mother would still lactate in response to the pregnancy, but her baby will already be past that stage by the time its born. The yolk of the egg fills in that role during the baby's early development.

Live-born preds are much less developed at first though, and would need to be breastfed. I imagine live-born nagas would fall into this group as well.

I wouldn't actually be very surprised by a pretty low male ratio.

It's more efficient to have more females - they are the limiting factor in the growth of a population, so more of them means a greater population growth, which is necessary on a dangerous world. Many species actually have a larger female ration during times of hardship to increase the population.

So, very social species like dridders which live in defendable communities together probably have a more even male to female ratio. More wild living species of taurs likely have a larger female to male ratio.

On a seperate note, from what we've seen so far, female nagas seem to be solitary, but on the other hand, have relatively set territories. So either male nagas are actually more "nomadic" than females, or nagas have a complex control of their territories which multiple female territories surrounding and overlapping a male one.

*sigh* JT, is it really that hard to stay on track? This isn't about gender ratio, it's about newborns.

Didn't we already decide the nagalings were going to be about 4-6 ft when newborn? Ace mentioned also that the largest dinosaur egg found was no larger than 2'8". I imagine eggs would be long and slender like snake eggs are normally though. Speaking of which, are there any Felaryan creatures that scavenge for eggs?

Archmage_Bael wrote:

Didn't we already decide the nagalings were going to be about 4-6 ft when newborn? Ace mentioned also that the largest dinosaur egg found was no larger than 2'8". I imagine eggs would be long and slender like snake eggs are normally though. Speaking of which, are there any Felaryan creatures that scavenge for eggs?

I think the low estimate was 4ft and the high one was 7ft. We haven't decided on a definate size though, but it would probably be somewhere in that range.

As for the eggs, yeah, I think naga eggs would be long, slender and leathery. I imagine different species' eggs are all a little different in size, shape, texture, etc really.

Probably. Its a free meal if you can nab one when the mother is away. I know that's why my Topazial Anguillans travel to the mainland to lay their eggs in the river systems. There are far fewer threats to their eggs there than out in the open sea. As for sentient preds that do that, that is getting into some potentially iffy territory.

rcs619 wrote:

As for sentient preds that do that, that is getting into some potentially iffy territory.

Anyone up for a giant omelette?

Well that was 2' X 8" and it really has to do with the maximum size you can make a functioning egg. The physics of egg fluid dynamics limit their maximum size, but hey the Giants are impossibly big as well so what ever.

I may be newish, but couldn't reproductive details of a character be left to the discretion of their author?

I mean, not all Species within the same Suborder reproduce the same way, so who's to say that different Species/Subspecies/Breeds/Races of Giant Fantisy Half-Humans wouldn't as well?

Order is quite different from species

Creatures in the same species must reproduce in the same way, otherwise they can't breed with each other. If they can't breed then they aren't the same species.

Anime-Junkie wrote:

Order is quite different from species

Creatures in the same species must reproduce in the same way, otherwise they can't breed with each other. If they can't breed then they aren't the same species.

True, but if we're going by the idea that a Giant Naga is "Human + Snake", and "Snakes" are really anything in the Suborder Serpentes...

...Plus, this is a Magical Fantasy setting we're talking about here.