#bombos

This creature, commonly called the Pondhopper, is native to the Bombo homeworld.

Pondhoppers are large but comparatively rather light. They are mostly hollow, with wide mouths that when closed, render them quite flat. They also have many air bladders that aid in buoyancy while swimming and form a complex respiratory system when flighted. They do not have gills, and instead periodically swallow great amounts of air from the surface. Additionally, much of their square footage is taken up by their large, wing-like fins - making them appear larger than their mass would imply.

Pondhoppers spend the vast majority of their lives alone living in the water, where seldom more than just a few will live within the vicinity of each other. However, when the conditions are just right they will migrate en masse from their usual territories to the nearest sea. They do this by leaping out of whatever river or lake they typically inhabit and flying to the next nearest body of water. Then, after a short time they leap into the air once more and repeat the pattern until they reach the sea. This is how they earned their names.

Once at sea, pondhoppers congregate in large groups to breed. In some cases, we’ll over 100 can be found together at this time.. After which they raise their young communally in large herds upwards of 40 individuals. Once the young grow old enough to survive on their own the herd begins to travel back inland, slowly dispersing as they go.

The conditions that cause pondhoppers to migrate are very specific, and usually only line up every few years. The wet season needs to have resulted in a great deal of rainfall, but the storms that accompany it need to die down before the dry season gets in full swing. Pondhoppers have complex sensory systems that evaluate the scents on the wind, barometric pressure, and electromagnetic fields, allowing them to determine the perfect timing to begin migrating. Though how, exactly, they all know to migrate at the same time, despite living very spread-out, is still not fully understood.