Alpine Rooster

The Alpine Rooster (Alfheimi: Vetrkocklingr) is a subspecies of chicken first bred in the mountainous regions of Haven. The Alpine Rooster was bred to thrive in the cold, oxygen-deprived alpine regions of the sub-continent. One of the most distinctive features of the breed is its plump appearance during especially cold winters. This is owing to its ability to build a lot of fat, allowing the bird to function normally at sub-zero temperatures. This fat produced meat that was rich in energy, especially useful for those who farmed and consumed them in tough winter months.

Behaviour and lifestyle
Due to the scarcity of food supplies in winter months, Alpine Roosters do not create flock-like groups for collective survival, with this only occurring during the spring and summer months. Oftentimes, Alpine Hens are left to fend for offspring for up to the first two years of their life, with the males travelling alone during winter to mate with a new partner in spring or summer.

Winter
During the winter, Roosters thrive primarily off of their fat reserves built up from the warmer months of the year, when river valleys and lower mountain glades are not coated in a fine layer of ice. In addition to this, Alpine Roosters and Hens have a thicker form of feathers to provide insulation, with feather filaments being oftentimes twice the thickness of a human hair. As a result, they are unable to fly, capable of brief jumps for shorter distances. Patterns of Alpine Rooster behaviour during winter revolve around sluggish, conservative movements to minimise energy consumption, with any necessary scavenging for food being performed around noon and early afternoons to capitalise on the apex of the sun's heat.

Dissections of Alpine Hens and Roosters have revealed an abnormaly engorged large intestine, theorised to enable the species to consume snow for nourishment. Biologists have yet to understand how this is performed without a great cost to the Rooster's internal temperature, yet evidence suggests that the Alpine Rooster does not appear to suffer adverse side effects.

Furthermore, Alpine Rooster feet are remarkably adapted for traction on snowy terrain, with the base of the Rooster's feet exhibiting sine filaments to increase the surface area of their feet. These filaments span up to a centimetre in length, and are remarkably rigid, digging into the snow easily despite their thin width.

Summer
During the summer months, Alpine Roosters migrate towards river valleys and mountain glades in conjunction with melting snow, congregating in large mating groups with anywhere upwards of four Hens to a single Rooster in these groups. Due to snowmelt, much of the group derives sustenance from earthworms and insects that return to these areas without the pressure of compacted earth and freezing plant life. The latter half of Spring sees the beginning of an explosion in the food supply for Rooster populations, resulting in many groups gorging themselves on prey to replenish their fat reserves. Oftentimes, a section of river valley or glade can be entirely exhausted of food, resulting in the group migrating in search of more.

Mating
Roosters and Hens mate for the duration of the mating season, which lasts from late Spring to the beginning of Autumn. The beginning of the season is marked with the beginning of a process unique to the male Alpine Rooster known as "flushing" when the blood capillaries in the frills around the head of the rooster increase in circulation, changing from a pale blue-red colour to a bright vibrant red. This change also includes an expansion in the size of the frills, which recede during winter months to minimise heat-loss.

Roosters rely on these frills to attract the attentions of the female mate, approaching a Hen from the front, utilising a strutting drance and shakings of their heads to display the frills. Rivals attempt similarly, with two competing Roosters seeking to interupt the dances of the other and scare them away from their target mate. In some cases, this dissolves into a fight between the two males, wherein the Roosters attempt to wound eachother using their talons. It is not uncommon for some Roosters to be entirely beheaded in viscious mating brawls, seen in local cultures as a bad omen for winter months.

Once a partner has been secured, a Hen will begin to enter their laying season, laying a clutch of eggs over the span of months until the weather turns colder. Incubation lasts anywhere from 18-30 days, after which hatchlings are fed by their Rooster and Hen via regurgitated foods collected earlier in the day. Roosters stay by their Hen partners until the end of the mating season, seeking a new partner the following year.

Hatchlings reach maturity after two years, marked by the emergence of frills for Roosters. Once mature, Roosters separate from their Hen and begin looking for new areas to mate at. This is not a constant, as some return to the same mating grounds each year, however in the case of defeated Roosters, many migrate in search of a new mating flock.

Prey and predators
Alpine Roosters consume a variety of seeds, insects and worms as foodstuffs, with mountain grubs and valley worms being particularly prized due to the fatty nature of the foodstuff. In the case of domesticated Alpine Roosters, diets have pivoted toward seeds and nuts as the basis of nourishment, with debates among farmers as to how healthy this is in the longer term.

Alpine Roosters have few natural predators due to the harsh, inhospitable nature of their habitat, however they are known to be picked upon by valley foxes and even the stray mountain bear in the Haven continent. For the most part, their largest predator are their human farmers, who have been selectively breeding them for greater fat and muscle reserves for generations. Poachers are also known to seek wild Alpine Roosters for the sake of particularly eccentric clients who deign to consume the wild animal as a mark of their opulence in being able to source the animal outside of traditional breeding stock.

Due to a recent series of harsher winters and an uptick in poaching, populations have plummeted, leading to calls among the Alfheim regions of Haven for a conservation injunction to be made on behalf of Alpine Roosters, prohibiting poaching of the species entirely and forcing farmers to release a portion of their stock into their natural habitats.