The Andamunda (Q. "Elephant", lit. "long-snouted", pl. Andamundar) or Zamamak (Adûnaic?) was the smaller and more numerous cousin of the famous Mûmak.
Detailed Description[]
Like all of its cousins, the Andamunda had thick, pillar-like legs and flat, padded feet. Its loose skin and large ears (which flapped) provided the Andamunda with excellent heat regulation, enabling it to adapt to a variety of ecosystems. The creature's most notable feature, however, was undoubtedly it's trunk: an elongated nose and upper lip that served as both a sensory organ and as a prehensile grasping tool. An Andamunda used it's trunk to smell, gather food, drink, and as a weapon in combat.
Andamundar also had a pair of long tusks that they used in melees, but these giant teeth primarily served as digging tools. Since Andamundar subsisted on roots, shoots, twigs, fruit, leaves, and other edible vegetation, the tusks acted as picks. A typical Andamunda ate about 400 pounds of food each day, cutting with the tusks, grasping with its trunk, and placing the food in its mouth. Aside from one or two rest periods at night and a midday break, the great beast was always active, roaming about with a swinging gait in a constant search for security and food. This continual plodding, though, belied the Andamunda's strength as a swift, agile runner. If aroused, it could run down and gore or bash a relatively quick foe.
Unlike the Mûmak, the Andamunda had a slightly humped back and one (as opposed to two or three) finger-like extension at the base of its trunk. It also had a gland at the side of its head that enabled it to secrete, and divest itself of, protiens and cholesterol (often accompanied by extreme aggression due to the swelling of the gland). This seemed to coincide with mating seasons in these animals, though it was known to occur at other times, such as feeding. Like Mûmakil, Andamundar females (cows) travelled in herds led by an elder matriarch. Each cow bore but one offspring at a time (after 21 months gestation) and raised her calf for twenty-four to thirty months. Also like the Mûmak, bulls were solitary, and somewhat more aggressive in the wild.
Common to the Shay lands, Yoyoyopo, and the regions around the Bay of Ormal in southern Middle-earth, Andamundar were domesticated by a variety of cultures. They were used less frequently than the Mûmakil as riding animals, but they were much easier to tame.
References[]
- Retrieved from Realms of Arda (archived, latest available);
- original reference: ICE MERP #2012: Creatures of Middle-earth