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It's only a matter of time till we get a raccoon equivalent. I noticed it that one of the tools it carves are picks. What does it use them for?

", which is based primarily on how good they are at tricking one another."
All the other things are pretty plausible: this fauna collects New Caledonian crows, raccoons, foxes, and scrub jay traits together. However, having a social hierarchy based on tricking each other is odd, and needs more explanation. To rise in rank, wouldn't they have to be observed by others? Wouldn't others have to remember being tricked? If they were tricked, wouldn't they trust the 'jester' less and be more aggressive or likely to distrust it in the future?

QUOTE (Coolsteph @ Jul 5 2021, 09:43 AM)

", which is based primarily on how good they are at tricking one another." All the other things are pretty plausible: this fauna collects New Caledonian crows, raccoons, foxes, and scrub jay traits together. However, having a social hierarchy based on tricking each other is odd, and needs more explanation. To rise in rank, wouldn't they have to be observed by others? Wouldn't others have to remember being tricked? If they were tricked, wouldn't they trust the 'jester' less and be more aggressive or likely to distrust it in the future?

My intent was tricking in good fun, like keeping a piece of food out of reach for a bit but then giving it back. Ones that are just mean or malicious are chased off.

That's worth specifying in the description itself, since it's unclear. I am unsure whether these would understand what "mean" or "malicious" are, too, so describing specific behaviors would help.

Why did it lose its spikes? It does have predators, as the "history of predation" line says. If anything, its smaller size would make it more appealing as prey, and therefore give it greater need for spikes. Do its predators attack only areas without spikes? It also seems odd it would lose so much of its tail spikes, since smacking foes with spiked tails would likely be effective as defense, especially if it lacks spears. (Spears aren't mentioned, but "fine tools" are.)

If they're small enough to quickly escape into other organisms' burrows, rotten logs or up into the trees, I suppose standing and defending themselves wouldn't be necessary, but that's not stated.

The decreased lifespan was a mutation in the particular population of their ancestor that they evolved from. It's effectively an unintentional change. At present, they would have some predators, but their range is nowhere near as narrow and it looks like the apex predator of the region is the Camoback, which is cold-blooded. As they aren't at constant risk of predation anymore, spikes aren't exactly priority and were lost in favor of having more energy and resources to spare for doing other things, like maintaining their brains and producing the calcified grit used in the tail cap.

I'll make some edits. As for picks, I meant pick like in toothpick, for picking food out of things.

I've added a small bit comparing trickery to humor

I like it.