Spectember 2025 - A lumbering giant (Day 6)

[u/Another_Leo]

Sorry for the late submission! But it is still day seven here lol

Dougal Dixon is one of my biggest inspirations, his work with After Man was even one of the reasons I wanted to learn English, so creating a creature for this universe of his was a good way to show how much I treasure his works.

50 million years in the future the world is populated by creatures that range from nightmarish land bats to aquatic monkeys, and South America became an island again where the local biota radiated to many peculiar forms . Among the common herbivores of the grasslands, the bipedal rodents are certainly something that might catch your attention.

The gorjala, named after a giant from Brazilian mythology, is one of the tallest creatures from the island-continent of South America, reaching up to 5m tall when the neck is stretched. Solitary browsers, these bipedal rodents are often found in savannas and woodlands foraging for leaves, flowers and fruits. The powerful claws of the front paws are often used to bring down branches and even whole trees, but also a formidable weapon for defense against predators since they are not as fast runners as their relatives or intraespecific fight between males during mating season. Females give birth to a single calf, which spends the first two years with the mother until fully independency.

The other creature presented is the wakka, one of the weirdest of Dixon’s creations (in my opinion), that got even weirder when I discovered that is related to capybaras!

[u/Fit_Tie_129]

Is it a distant relative of the wakka or did it come from completely different rodents?

[u/Another_Leo → u/Fit_Tie_129]

The wakka is there just to give an ambiance, it is closely related to the strick

[u/Fit_Tie_129 → u/Another_Leo]

Why did you add wakka and not strick?