Atlas-Backed Badger

Atlas-Backed Badgers (Polyphemus atlas) are a species of large animal native to the island continents of Moshkho and Weepria.

Taxonomy

The Atlas-backed Badger was traditionally thought to be related to Eurasian badgers in the subfamily Melinae of the weasel family of carnivorans (the Mustelidae), but recent DNA analysis indicates they share a more recent common ancestor with skunks, so experts have now placed them in the skunk family in their own unique subfamily the Polypheminae

Behavior and Ecology

The adult Atlas-Backed Badger spends most of its time in an extended state of torpor, Only occasionally emerging from the ground in brief monthly rampages through they’re environment consuming everything in sight, dramatically impacting plant life and less so animal life in the area.

An infant Badger
a juvenile badger
A full-grown adult Badger

once every two to three years decade sexually mature Atlas back badger males are enticed to seek a mate via a dramatic spike of testosterone in they’re body causing a state not too dissimilar to a bull elephant's musth. Causing outbursts capable of leveling undefended remote villages that are too close to the creatures territory, This behavior caused them to be feared and hunted to near extinction by both Saurians and Humans in their historical range.

Hunting and loss of valuable habitats have left the Atlas-backed Badger an Endangered Species

Symbiotes

Because the badger spends so much time sessile many plants and animals have made their homes upon this creature's back.

Birch Trees are the dominant species of tree upon badger backs, though oaks, swamp cypress and willow often take root here often.

Many animals have moved onto these creatures alongside the plants. Three species of Tweezles; Manwell's, Little Grey and Two-lined, nest upon the birches. They feed upon the thousands of parasites that work their way into the mammal's flesh.

Perhaps the most bizarre of these parasites is the Burrowing Leechlizard (Hirudosaurus sarcophodiens), a lacertid lizard that has evolved to feed exclusively on the blood of large mammals and archosaurs.

The Cryptic Hitchhiker (Travehobatrachus melephilus) is a special creature, as this tiny tree frog is found only on the back of Atlas-backed Badgers.