About The Species:
Nukittas live in a world called Ávora, which is a planet very similar to Earth in both matters of fauna and flora. There are humans there as well, though their lifestyle resembles that of a medieval age. Wild nukittas inhabit forests surrounding mountain bases all around Ávora and rarely make any contact with humans, since they are rather shy creatures. However, they are also very peaceful animals and thus it’s still possible for one to be captured and domesticated. It’s even common for people to raise them in villages located near those forests to pull carts and for their rich milk, especially the marcher type.
Nukittas are
cervines, but they are believed to be distant relatives of the modern equines. Their mane curiously starts being short and rigid(the “
upper mane”) and then becomes longer and silkier the closer it gets to the shoulder(the “
lower mane”). Unlike a horse’s, the feathering of a nukitta is composed of very rigid hairs that are similar to the ones forming the upper mane, only becoming softer when closer to the cloven hooves and also covering completely their tiny dewclaws.
A herd will sometimes leave the shadows of the closed forest to bathe in the sun in a clearing, but it’s always a very risky move. Their biggest predators are the dragons that inhabit the region and thus an attack from above is predictable in such moment of exposure. Smaller predators inhabiting the woods can make their move, too, but in these cases the nukittas curl their fluffy tails on their backs to appear bigger and scare the threat away. When this doesn’t work, the whole herd gathers together and makes this same move to confuse the enemy, appearing to be one big, hairy menace.
Their tails are also constantly used for communication, making them very expressive creatures. After much observation and studies made by experienced hunters, a pattern was identified in their actions and taken note of as something commonly known as
Tail Talk.
Tail fully stretched out: cautious, attentive
Tail curled between legs: fearsome
Tail dropped yet slightly curled up at the tip(sometimes wagging slightly): curious
Tail curled against the back: pleased or showing dominance
Tail curled against back AND wagging: happy
Tail swishing around quickly: irritated
As a nuglet(baby), nukittas have a characteristic “baby coat”. Their fur is softer and longer, giving them a fluffy appearance(like this picture), and this coat is only fully shed by the age of 15 months. By the third year of life, the nukitta is considered a mature adult.
The baby coat is of the same color of the nuglet’s real coat, it’s just a fluffier version of it. Sometimes it’s just a little paler. The possible coats for the species are also the same of an earthling horse’s, however, the species has three specific patterns:
Freckled Layer: it's common for the layers tobiano, splash and overo to develop tiny spots on certain areas.
Bengal: markings composed of spots and stripes mixed together resembling the pattern of a marble bengal cat’s. They never reach the head or cover the legs and are of a darker tone of the base color.
Brindling: thin stripes that either cover the whole body or just specific parts of it. In most cases the color is a darker tone of the base coat, but there are times it can be a lighter tone instead due to environment influence or even genetic anomalies.
Besides these specific patterns, there are coats with such little possibility of nuglets being born with that they are considered to be
very rare in the species. They are:
-Markless: the lack of bengal and brindle on the base coat. The only exceptions are those with appaloosa blankets, for the genes which cause appaloosa tend to either weaken or delete completely the effect of the bengal and brindle genes. The bigger the blanket, the weaker the patterns(leopard appaloosas are always markless)
-Doubling: the presence of both bengal and brindle on the same coat(uber rare).
-Fewspot Appaloosa: white blanket covering the whole body with very few spots visible, sometimes easily confused with a pure white coat.
-Light Bengal: the bengal pattern having a lighter color than the base coat.
-Pure White: title says all.
by iAmDiversity » Sun Sep 29, 2013 12:21 pm 
