Balking Dragon

The Balking Dragon - A huge aquatic predator that eats whatever it can chance upon. Around three times bigger than a blue whale, this colossal creature is currently endangered from poaching. Their common prey are squid, which they catch by coiling around them and holding them still in their many legs, while consuming the hapless victim alive.

EDIT: Coloured now, though the scanner killed half the shading...

Anyway, I thought I`d give more detail about the balking dragon species.

This here is a female - usually being around 3 times larger than a mature male. Only females retain the blue hue throughout the seasons, as male balking dragons shed their shells before mating seasons, and it grows back a bright orange/red to attract a mate.

Mating season is very harsh for balking dragons, as it is estimated that for every female there are a potential 6 males, and they have been known to kill each other in fighting.

Balking dragons usually spend there time deep underwater, but in mating season they rise to shallower areas, making them easier targets for poachers, though poachers mainly attempt to kill balking dragons as they breach, as it is easier and less dangerous.

Balking dragons don't need to breach often, but since they live quite deep down, their gills and the cracks in their shells get plugged up with kelp and dirt. To get rid of this, they exspell vast amounts of water at high pressure using storage organs called Fallager's pouches through the gills and other various cracks to get rid of various debris.

John Fallager, a marine biologist, is known for being the first man ever to disect a balking dragon. He removed the plates from the first (and only) balking he ever found, and he found the storage organs underneath the shell. For the life of him he couldn't figure out what they were for, until he witnessed a mature male breaching, and saw the impressive water display. These specialised organs were named in his memory.


EDIT2: I think this is a much neater scan than the previous.

EDIT 3: Cleaned up a lil more. This shall be the final edit.