Group Limits

• Scorching Season: 14 per herd
• All other seasons: 20 per herd
• The herd consists of one female matriarch and dominant male (the matriarch’s mate) and any additional herd members.
• Bars younger than sub-adult do not count toward the group limit.
• Barsboldia can group with Edmontosaurus. They don’t count to the group limit and won’t be defended.

Nest Limits

• Blooming Season: 4 eggs, 4-hours interval
• Scorching Season: 1 eggs, 4-hours interval
• Wilting Season: 4 eggs, 4-hours interval
• Frosting Season: 3 eggs, 4-hours interval

Sexual Dimorphism

• Sexual Dimorphism is mandatory.
• Males (bulls)
  • have a more pronounced back.
  • Suitable subspecies: dorsum, sicinskii
• Females (cows)
  • have a less prominent back.
  • Suitable subspecies: gibbosi
• Mutations
  • Melanistic Barsboldias may struggle with overheating during the sunniest time periods.
  • Albinistic Barsboldias do not face any issues.

Habitat

• Sedentary
• Prefers: dense and sparse woodlands.
  • The Barsboldia sticks to the edges of forests and close to water.
    It loves to bathe in rivers and lakes to cool down its enormous body, likes to roll in mud and retreats to the shadow of the woods or to some dark rock ledges when the sun is at its highest.
• Dislikes: deserts and beaches
  • Barsboldia don’t thrive in open areas with nothing around to take shelter from the sun.

Activity

• Scorching season: Nocturnal
• All other seasons: Diurnal
• During downtime, Barsboldia sleep and sometimes socialise quietly. They only move when in need of food or water.

Diet

• Strict Herbivore: Passive
  • Barsboldia spent most of their day grazing on flowers, nuts, pinecones and roots.
  • They are not territorial or aggressive when it comes to their food, evening sharing it with other herbivores.

Growing Behaviours

Hatchling

• Hatchlings take some time to find footing in the new world around them. Not really steady on their feet, they instead start to train their already loud vocal organ by calling for their parents.
• They usually remain in the nest until they reach the juvenile stage. In cases where there is only one offspring or there is no nest closeby, the parents form a protective circle when sleeping and the hatchling prefers to sleep in the middle of its parents for comfort.

Juvenile

• Ready to leave the nest, the juveniles begin to explore and interact with the herd, seeking playmates of similar age. These outings are usually only for the short duration of a game with another calf or investigating a specific adult Barsboldia that catches their interest. Afterwards they are quick to return to their nest.
• When a playmate is found, calves often play tag or hide-and-seek. If one feels the game is unfair though, it can easily escalate into loud shouting matches between the calves. In such cases, mothers are quick to rush over to break up the fight and bring their calves back to the nest.
• Especially the father encourages his male offspring's loud vocalisations and grows uneasy if they remain very quiet for extended periods of time. To prevent this, he tries to draw the young male's attention and encourages it to mimic his broadcasting call.

Adolescent

• Adolescents grow more independent.
• Females watch adult females caring for young.
• Males observe adult males, engage in play-fights to mimic them and do shouting matches with other adolescent males.
  • Boisterous male calves sometimes challenge male adults, who are quick to give the youngling a lesson that will teach them to not take on a fully grown male again.

Sub/Adult

• Subadults count as adults.
• When calves are born that exceed the group limit or are grandchildren of the matriarch, the herd will migrate to the “Echo Grounds”, an ancient meeting place of Barsboldia. It’s located on the border between Titan’s Pass and Green Hills and serves as a place of reunion for family members from different herds, as well as a place of beginnings for all sub-adults that seek new herds.
  • Once the herd reaches the Echo Grounds, the sub-adults will leave the herd and seek a new herd or other unrelated Bars to found their own herd with. If a subadult refuses to leave, the matriarch will drive them out of the herd.
  • Subadults with strong bonds may stay together to form a new herd.
  • Despite their strict rules about the herds composition, Barsboldia maintain tight bonds with each other, even if they separate into different herds.
  • If the herd finds other Barsboldia at the Echo Grounds, they often spend a day cycle there, to exchange stories and enjoy each other's company. They especially appreciate reuniting old friends or family members, and greet them dearly.

Orphan Behaviours

• Hatchlings, usually slow to stand on their own feet, are forced to adapt quicker without a parental figure. They relentlessly scream for their mother until they realise that no one will answer their calls.
• They stay near their birthplace, hiding in bushes until they reach juvenile stage.
• Driven by their instincts, they wander towards the “Echo Grounds” or seek other herbivores - preferably hadrosaurs - to follow.
• If orphans never meet other Barsboldia until they are adult, they end up more quiet than their herd-raised peers.
  • For males, this can cause issues during courtship, as loud vocals are seen as signs of health and strength by females.

Social Behaviours

General

• Barsboldia are social, very loud and generally gentle creatures. They avoid conflict with other species if they can help it.
• Bars are serial monogamous. They keep their partner for multiple seasons, but might decide to get a new mate if a better match appears.
• Bars are quite protective of their young. When their babies are still in their hatchling stage, the parents won’t let anyone near them except for the matriarch.
• Due to their large body surface, Bars with melanistic or almost black skin struggle when the sun is high and they haven’t cooled down their body in some cold water lately. The Barsboldia then might overheat, causing them to fall behind in the herd and stubbornly stay longer in shady places, unwilling to enter the relentless sun again.
• During Scorching Season, Bars turn night-active to avoid the burning force of the sun and to conserve their energy and valuable water reserves.
• Bars enjoy mudbathing near lakes or rivers, especially in the mornings during Scorching Season, if they lack shaded areas to rest in during the day.

Hierarchy

• A Barsboldia herd is led by the eldest, usually most experienced female called matriarch.
  • She is responsible for finding enough food, water and suitable nesting sites.
  • The matriarch chooses her mate and nests with him over multiple seasons. She only switches mate if she finds a more suitable male that has proven himself in fights enough to be worthy of the position by her side.
  • She remains in power until she is too old to lead the herd, or dies. This is when she hands down the post of the matriarch to the female she deems to be the, after herself, most experienced individual.
• The male by the matriarch's side is the dominant male.
  • He is responsible for correcting other members of the herd if they overstep their boundaries or if some males display-fight for a female escalates.

Gender-specific behaviour

• Bulls take turns to patrol the outskirts of the herd during downtime and alert, when predators are near.
• Bulls can be quite jealous. When another male Bars approaches their partner too often or makes active attempts to court their partner, the male can quickly turn protective over the female, charging up and lashing out with its tail against the other male.
  • This behaviour lessens towards males they have a good bond with or that have their own mate. The male then allows the other male to spend more time around the female and interact with her more freely. However, any courting behavior remains strictly off-limits, regardless of their relationship.
  • Those disputes often end in either a display fight over the female or the other male voluntarily retreating out of respect. If this happens during active nesting of the Bars pair, the dominant male will step in for the male with partner and stop the dispute before it begins, dismissing the other male.
  • In extreme cases, if the same male happens to aggress other males too often by trying to court a female with a partner, the dominant pair can sometimes decide to put the aggressor into a “timeout”.
  • In that case the dominant pair will chase him out of the herd and won’t let them back in for a time. This can last up to a day.
  • During that time, mainly the dominant male will keep watch to keep the bull out of the herd. The bull will stay as close as allowed and when the dominant pair deems him calm enough, he will be allowed to return into the herd's midst.
  • In case of an attack, the bull will still be defended or rush to others' defence.
• Cows, on the other hand, love to socialise with other females, take care of their juvenile and older calves together and watch carefully when males fight - either against other Bars or defend against predators. The females assess how the male puts up and will - if affected by his fighting skills - keep their impressions in mind for next nesting seasons.
  • Since cows are used to taking care of each other's calves as soon as the calves are out of their most precarious hatchling phase, they, together with their mate, tend to adopt any orphaned calf they come across and will treat it as one of their own.

Interspecies Behaviours

• Barsboldia enjoy the presence of other hadrosaurs, but don’t group with them.
• Solo Barsboldia may follow other herbivores in search for company.
• Barsboldia are known to share waters with Spinosaurus. Due to their equal size, they don’t see each other as threat or prey, except when there are adolescent or younger Barsboldia around.

Territorial Behaviours

• Bars are non-territorial.

Hunted Behaviours

In a herd

• Barsboldia are unfazed by the presence of smaller carnivores.
• If a predator of sub-apex or bigger size is in sight, they form a wall or circle (around calves) together, point their tails towards the predator and slam them threateningly. This is mostly to scare off the predator.
• In case the predator goes over into an actual attack, the wall breaks open and most of the Bars try to get distance between themselves and the attacker. Only the attacked Bar’s partner and any of the males - more often the dominant male - are the ones to stay behind and help defend.
  • Bulls are eager to impress potential female partners and therefore welcome a chance to prove themselves. Fighting off predators makes bulls significantly more attractive in the eyes of females.
  • Females may abandon their partner if he doesn’t fight or show initiative to fight and always leaves it to others.
• If the attacked Bars is a calf, it receives 3 defenders (the parents + one male).

Solo

• Solo Bars are more wary of their surroundings. When a predator is near, they whip their tail threateningly.
• When attacked, they stand their ground and defend themselves, but if they realise that they have no chance against the predators (multiple sub-apex or apex), they prefer to try to flee if that gives them better chances for survival.

Engagement Limits

• 3 Barsboldia per engagement
  • If the attacked Bars is a calf, it receives 3 defenders (the parents + one male).

Courtship

• Courtship is a constant process, starting long before the herd reaches a suitable nesting place.
• Females are attracted to males that have strong vocal cords and show good fighting skills and control of their tail attacks. Males therefore show their commitment by patrolling at downtime, try to show off their fighting skills by being the ones to defend herd members in case of an attack and sometimes pick fights with partners of females they are interested in.
• Once the herd finds some nesting grounds, the males will rumble (2-call) softly towards the female of their choice and slam their tail to impress her.
• If multiple males are interested in the same female, they start challenging each other.
  • These **display fights** consist of both males standing with their tails pointed to each other and slam their tails while shouting loudly to show off their impressive skills to the females. These fights should not make any Bars drop below half HP. In case it does, the dominant male will intervene.
• Females make their final decision based on how well the male has fought, past fights considered, and how strong their shouts are. This does not always have to be the winner of the display fight. The cow will walk up to the male of her choice and friendly-call him.
• Once the female has chosen a partner, they start building a nest together.
• Bars are quite protective of their young. When their babies are still in their hatchling stage, the parents won’t let anyone near them except for the matriarch.

Notes

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Terms

• Cow = female Barsboldia
• Bull = male Barsboldia
• Calf = Barsboldia offspring
• Echo Grounds = Meeting place of Barsboldia herds between Titan’s Pass & Green Hills

Stat Changes

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