Larker

Larkers are giant, gentle insects found in grassy plains.

Fanon

While Larkers are easy to detect in fields, they can often surprise explorers when they're covered by lush foliage, like man-sized ferns, from which they can be found feeding. Like the elephants (and miniphants) of Terra, larkers are a natural deforester, trimming the edges between great forests and savannahs.

Abilities

Larkers are generally gentle, but they can be ornery during mating season in spring, and can even endanger armored vehicles with their powerful charges. The chitinous exoskeleton of a larker is similar to a lightweight poly carapace, and can even shrug off some small-arms fire. They can be humanely incapacitated with a dart to the exposed "gills" that run along the back of their neck, which are less armored than the rest of them.

Like Terran elephants, larkers can communicate and sense vibrations through their feet--they use this particularly effectively if they sense large predators, or obnoxious tourists in buses.