Leaper

Overview
The Leaper is a medium-sized, somewhat hostile carnivore that hunts small birds and mammals in the dense forests of Viridia. Named after its tendency to hang from tree trunks and branches by its massive, clawed thumbs, leaping down on its prey and stunning it temporarily before a kill, Leapers are exceptionally adept at hunting. They are very often used as mounts and companions of the Wood Elves, wild Leapers even being known to protect young elves from other, hostile animals at the cost of their own lives. Weighing slightly more than 500lbs at most, and a more typical 250-400lbs, Leapers have dark fur lining their bodies with long, thick tails. Their ears are rounded and have a bodily structure similar to cougars or jaguar, however, their thumbs are forward-facing and much larger than their other fingers, their prehensile tails are used for gripping and balance. The males are born with a seasonal mane, shedding it during the summer and regrowing it in the Fall, during their mating season. Female Leapers will typically be smaller and have a shorter tail, but spend a great deal of their time on the forest floor or underground in their dens, caring for their young in a Matriarchal pack community. Females thick, flat, bladelike molars are inset parallel to each other on the four corners of their mouths, having massive, continuously growing front teeth that are used for digging and cutting trees, while males will usually only have the four molars along with a small, single front tooth used for hunting and combat, which also continues to grow indefinitely. The Leapers have the ability to communicate through the Void on a rudimentary level, extremely similar to horses and other pack animals, some even able to utilize a very limited vocabulary. Typically, Leapers will only communicate this way to their Elven companions and must be trained to do so like anything else in much the same way as Armless Dragons.