Realistic alternatives to Horses
Mounts are one of the coolest things about fantasy in my opinion. Riding around on raptors, dragons, elephants and even weirder things is one of the main draws to a lot of fantasy things.
However, justifying dragons and unicorns can be tricky. So, inspired by the hours I've spent riding a parasaur on ARK, I have a question.
What are the best alternatives to horses"”or is there anything better? Drawing on animals that exist in the real world"”even if they are extinct"”what are the best animals to fulfill the transportation and haulage roles of horses? Answers should take feeding/housing into consideration, but domestication can take any length of time. The environment is a mix of dense, rain-forest jungle and open plains with minimal hills. Rivers and lakes are plentiful and river transportation could be a viable option if creatures allow it.
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/18828. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
I recommend the Procoptodon:
A giant cousin of Skippy the Bush Kangaroo.
Attribution Wikipedia 2019 Licence
a genus of giant short-faced kangaroo living in Australia during the Pleistocene epoch.
Extinct now, but thought to have been around as recently as 18,000 years ago and quite suited to unkind terrain:
Procoptodon goliah was mainly known for living in semiarid areas of South Australia and New South Wales. These environments were harsh, characterised by vast areas of treeless, wind-blown sand dunes.
Artist's impression of a mount and rider (note the stowaway):
Attribution Survive-ark.com 2019
More than one theory about their locomotion exists - that they hopped like today's kangaroos or that they walked and ran in a fashion similar to humans, it's not currently certain.
If their fighting style is anything like modern kangaroos, they would box and bounce up on their tales kicking and tearing with their rear claws velociraptor style.
David Attenborough narrates a Youtube clip of this.
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