Titan Sardu

“Evolved from the same land-living ancestor as the birrin, the titan sardu are air-breathing creatures of great strength and predatory prowess. They range across the oceans of Chriirah, both inshore and in the open sea, pursuing diverse prey.  Highly intelligent, they have the ability to generate powerful, precisely controlled electric shocks via organs located in their elongated jaws. This ability allows them to stun entire schools of smaller organisms or probe their jaws into soft mud to shock  benthic prey from its hiding places. At its highest output, titan sardu are even able to stun creatures rivaling themselves in size. The electrogenic organs are coupled with a potent ability to sense electromagnetism, and they can navigate the otherwise featureless open ocean through sensing local magnetic fields.

The electrogenic organs also have a social purpose; mating individuals compete to show both their ability to generate electricity and to withstand the shocks of their adversaries. Any smaller creatures that accompany titan sardu as commensals must also be tolerant of this hazard; most swim to a safe distance during the closing stages of a hunt, moving in to feast on the scraps afterward.

The birrin diver seen here may seem, at best, foolhardy. However, titan sardus who frequent this reef do not come here to feed. They arrive to use the ‘cleaning stations’ provided by other organisms, willing to rid them of their parasitic loads. Local birrin divers have learned this, some joining in the cleaning with their own diving tools, creating a sense of trust between the two species. The titan sardu are even able to recognize individual birrin, reading their unique bio-electrical signatures, and appear to have ‘favorites’ they are more willing to interact with.