[Dragaera] The Lyorn's Horn

[Jerry Friedman]

--- Howard Brazee <howard at brazee.net> wrote:

> Jon Lincicum wrote:
> >  -------------- Original message ----------------------
> > From: Howard Brazee <howard at brazee.net>
...

> >> Or long?  How about how it is used?    Maybe it's like a 
> >> single ram's horn, used in mating ritual.  It is easier to imagine a 
> >> Dragaeran race with the attributes of a ram than with the attributes
> of 
> >> a gazelle.
> >>     
> >
> > "Lyorn growls and lowers horn."
> >
> > To me, this implies that it is used as a weapon against its enemies...
> Whatever other uses it might have are, as yet, undisclosed.
> >
> > Majikjon
> >
> >
> >
> >   
> This description would work well if it was a ram or rhino horn.    How 
> do the straighter horned antelope fight?    I could see some problems 
> fighting with a long spear on their foreheads.   Rhinos can attack 
> without that vulnerability.

I have here a copy of /The Safari Companion: A Guide to Watching African
Mammals/, by Richard D. Estes.  How much information do you want?

The straight-horned antelope par excellence (as someone pointed
out) is the oryx, /Oryx gazella/.  Its horns are considerably
longer in proportion to its body and pointed considerably more
to the back than Jon's lyorn.  It has two main threatening
postures: the high-horn threat, with the neck 45 degrees above
the horizontal and the horns pointed almost straight up, a
"strong threat to deliver downward blow", and the low-horn
threat, with the neck horizontal and the muzzle pointing
backwards, so the "horn tips point at opponent: threat to rush
and stab."  It also has a "defensive threat" ("I'm not going to
attack, but I'll fight back"), the head-low posture, with the
neck below the horizontal and the horns about 45 degrees above
the  horizontal.  I imagine the "Lyorn growls and lowers horn"
position is like either the low-horn threat or the head-low
posture.

Finally, the submissive position has the neck and muzzle
horizontal, so the horns are back on the shoulders.

All these positions are much like those of other antelope--the
curvature of the horns seems to make only a minor difference.

Oryxes differ from lyorn (I assume) in that they use their
horns mostly to fight or intimidate each other.  When threatened
by lions or spotted hyenas, oryxes "surprisingly seldom succeed
or even try to defend themselves, but rely on flight."

Jerry Friedman


       
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