Exploration of the Thereva jungle

We (a group of various scientifics) have been sent to explore the Therevea jungle. It is a jungle on top of a cliff and its lowest altitude is 500 m over the sea, while the average lies at 800m. With this expedition we hope to learn more about the animals living in it and (if possible) see how animals adapt to the dry season (as it's dry season right now). To explore more jungle in the less time, we have broken our team into two separated teams of 5 people, and each people have a shift to investigate during. My shift is in the middle of the night, from 10pm to 6am, and I have studied three different species.

The first one is a species of lizard. I've seen them always in small groups, up to five individuals, and the other people haven't seen them, so it's highly probable they are nocturnal. They appear to eat insects and have a preference with beetles. They have two legs and a long tail and are brown coloured, similar to the tree trunks. They use their long tail to move around and hanging from things and their front legs to hunt. On one of the groups, I saw two of them bury the third and dead individual; another group was protecting newly hatched hatchlings while one of the adults was bringing food, first to the hatchlings, and then to the adults. A nearby town seems to have a tale about these little creatures, saying that they fall in people's head that have been behaving badly, and that it's a punishment of one of their gods.

Another of the species was a flightless bird. They live in groups of over a dozen of individuals and also appear to be mostly nocturnal although some individuals have been seen during twilight and dawn. They are carnivours but specially like the previously mentioned lizards. They have strong legs and small vestigial wings ending in sharp claws and green coloured, with some spots of other bright colours on their chests. They live in the trees, using their strong legs and the claws from their wings to climb to the top of the trees, where they nest. They can jump very high and far and have also been seen gliding a bit with their vestigial wings. I have seen some groups of them pursuing the lizards to hunt them, jumping and gliding behind the faster lizards until the lizards get tired and the birds catch them.

The last species seen are another birds. They live in small groups of 7 and are not specially nocturnal but more crepuscular. They live out of seeds they get from the trees and hoard extra seeds. They are small, smaller than the other two species, have a pair of horns on the top of their and are coloured with brown and other dark colours. Living in the roots of trees, where the male carves out burrows with his horns, they are seen living with the lizards. Because both are prey of the flightless birds, they hide together and help each others. The lizards keep the borrow clean of insects and other small animals while the birds help fight away the flightless birds with their horns. They seem to breed at the same time as the lizards and to teach their chicks to fly, they ask the lizards to put the chicks up high and throw them.

Signed: Ko Tijink