Slegripper

One of Genome's first monsters, Slegripper, one of Oyster Man's monsters, is a deadly cross between a siberian tiger, and a viperfish.



Abilities
Slegripper have a fairly good sense of smell. This comes in useful hunting prey above the water. Slegripper also possess amazing agility, which comes in useful when attacking larger predatory animals. Slegripper attacks with a lethal combination of claws, and saber-like teeth.

Weaknesses
Despite his excellent sense of smell, Slegripper suffers from weak senses of sight and touch. Though agile, Slegrippers large teeth sometimes get in the way. Although Slegripper can travel on land as well as in the water, the beast must stay damp at all times, or risk drying out and a painful death.

Stats
A fully grown Slegripper stand at 5 feet tall, and can reach 20 feet in length. The average weight is unknown, simply because it is very difficult to capture these creatures.

Diet
A Slegrippers main diet consists of a variety of fish, and several types of land-based prey that live near their habitat, though they prefer rotting meat. They usually hide food for months before eating it. This means that Slegripper have large sources of food in its territory.

Hunting methods
Slegripper are ambush predators. They have several techniques on catching land prey that are listed here. The Slegripper slowly approaches prey from just under the water surface, and pounce when they get close enough. Another tactic they use on large drops is hiding just under the surface by the shore. When prey drinks it either has its head grabbed by the slegripper's jaws and is pulled under, or it is pounced on.

Behavior
Slegrippers are often solitary animals, until mating season where a male and female may share a swamp for a month, or until the female is pregnant. The female has live birth, and gives birth to two baby slegrippers, called fry or minnows. The mother raises them until they are a year of age and can fend for themselves. Normally slegrippers are incredibly aggressive, they tend to attack anything that comes to the water for a drink.

Odd Behavior
Slegrippers have occasionally been recorded in the ocean, sometimes as much as a mile away from shore. The exact reason for them being this far out is uncertain, and as of yet only hypothesis have been concluded.

Habitat
Slegripper habitats generally consist of swamps and shores.