Muttation Contest IX

Name of Mutt: Porcupanda

Brief Summary: Originally designed to ward off unwanted guests in crop fields, these Porcupine/Giant Panda hybrids stand as tall as their bamboo-eating parent. If enormous bear claws and sharp teeth aren't intimidating enough, these creatures are born with a set of barbed quills on their bodies - each the length of a man's forearm - which can be manipulated by capitol scientists to carry a lethal poison if necessary. Despite their ferocious exterior, the creatures are actually solitary and rather passive in the right environment. However, they are also easily frightened and prone to aggressive behavior when startled. The smallest of threats can trigger a a violent attack, when the creature may use its claws as weapons or even slam itself into enemy bodies to make use of its quills. In the past they wandered through crop fields to protect precious resources from thieving critters and wanderers (the sight of them alone is enough to scare off even the most daring), but their behavior grew too unstable to be deemed safe any longer. That's when the capitol decided these quill-equipped bears would make the perfect predator in a plant abundant arena. This is also where the poison may come into play.

Poision, Edible, or Neither? Poison or Neither

Name of Mutt:
Tusken

Brief Summary:
A frightening combination of boars and oxen, Tusken’s were originally envisioned to be genetically engineered livestock in the capitol with the meat being flavored somewhere between pork and steak. However, the flesh of the Tusken turned out to be too tough and the Tusken themselves too territorial to be penned up. They were abandoned in the wild. A few years later, reports of fiercely territorial creatures killing native animals in the woods were confirmed, and the Tusken were recaptured. The wild animals were considered perfect for the arena, because their two tusks and two horns had grown unchecked while they had been free; to deadly proportions close to that of a small spear. They often secure an area in mated pairs, and kill everything else that crosses their path.

30hp

Found in Cornucopia, Bonsai Forest.
Poision, Edible, or Neither?
Neither


Name of Mutt:
Spider Monkey

Brief Summary:
Initially devised as a way to farm gorgeous silk in a less time consuming manner, the Spider Monkeys nevertheless proved to be as dangerous as most of the other mutts created by the Capitol due to a pair of design oversights The simian dna from chimpanzees had a tendency to make them go bananas after awhile, attacking their handlers and biting them with poisonous fangs. The venom isn't toxic enough to kill immediately, but left untreated, will result in a painful death. The creatures themselves are covered in shiny brown fur that ends at their abdomen, which is pointed and secretes the web fluid. Sporting two sets of arms, six eyes and two large mandibles, the Spider monkeys are a fearsome sight to behold.
Poison, Edible, or Neither?

Poison

I researched all night for this and discovered two things:
1) Maggots look really weird close-up.
2) Houseflies are creepy and awesome.

I wasn't sure if I should make this into one mutt or not (seeing as they're kind of the same creature) so I separated them.

Name of Mutt: Corpse Nibblers
Brief Summary: These large, maggot-like creatures were an experiment created by Capitol scientists as a means to clear out the corpses of dead muttations inside the arena. Unlike regular maggots, Corpse Nibblers are much larger, ranging anywhere from 12-24 inches long, with sharp teeth, beady eyes, and a squishy exterior. They become giant flies when they mature, and their eggs are laid near a source of food – usually a dead mutt that has been left alone to rot – and they will slowly roam around, sometimes in groups, until they find something to munch on. Unfortunately for the tributes, there’s not enough rotting muttation meat to go around, and the Nibblers will resort to attacking living creatures in order to survive, even occasionally resorting to picking apart their own comrades for nutrients. For this reason (and the fact that they’re horrifically huge), they’re not the kind of maggots that you might use to clean out a human wound, but they are edible, if you can get past the fact that they spend their entire lives writhing around rotting flesh.
Poison, Edible, or Neither? Edible

Name of Mutt: Flutter Fly
Brief Summary: The Flutter Fly wasn’t originally created as a fly; in fact, it is often more prized for its short-lived maturation stage, wherein its maggot self cleans up the bodies of rotting mutts. Nobody can actually stop the maggots from maturing, and the result is the Flutter Fly: a giant, 1-2 foot long model of the common housefly, with eyes on both sides of its head that house thousands of lenses. Its wings buzz like a warning every time it's in the area, a steady hummm that usually sends every living thing in the opposite direction. Daunting as the image might seem, the original creation wasn’t formidable enough by Gamemaker standards, for its only purpose in life seemed to be finding a nice, liquid meal. Solid food wasn’t on the menu – that is, until the Capitol scientists gave the fly a decent row of sharp teeth along the edge of its proboscis. Now, the fly has the ability to take out chunks of tribute with its teeth, first vomiting a mixture of its saliva and stomach acid onto the victim, a tactic originally used to help break down difficult foods. In search of a meal, the fly will actually latch onto its victim with the sharp claws and suction cups at the ends of its legs, feeling up the potential food source with its leg hairs and proboscis to get an idea of how it tastes.
Poision, Edible, or Neither? Edible

Name of Mutt: Coala

Brief Summary: The Coala is a mix between a Koala and a Chameleon. It is roughly the size of the Koala, but can blend in to its surroundings like a chameleon can. These animals were originally made for magic shows, after all, who wouldn't want something that became invisible for magic shows? But something was messed up in the DNA splicing. The animals because territorial to an extreme degree, and attacked anything that came near. Thus, all the Coalas got put into the wild, and began to reproduce out there.

Poision, Edible, or Neither? Edible