Skull Island mammals

The following is a list of mammals living on Skull Island in the continuity of the 2005 film King Kong by Peter Jackson.

Monsters

	Main article: Humans. Humans had inhabited Skull Island for thousands of years. The first civilization of Skull Island natives dominated the island and built cities and monoliths all throughout it. It is possible that these first colonists brought the ancestors of the Kong with them from their original home. However, due to unknown circumstances, their civilization collapsed, and had been collapsed for at least one thousand years before the Venture's arrival. By that time, the human culture on the island was not even descended from the original islanders. These new arrivals, in adapting to the unforgiving environment of Skull Island lived in the ruins of their predecessors' catacombs, and had regressed considerably. What crude garments they wore were knotted together out of their own hair and bits of bone. Living in the shadow of their predecessors' great wall, the only thing keeping them safe from the horrors of the jungle, the crumbling coastline that lead to the savage waters also claimed its share of their lives. The bravest of their number would tether themselves together with crude ropes and pole-vault between rocks and sunken buildings to hunt for anemones, crabs, shellfish, and seaweed. Because of the scarcity of resources, Skull Islanders were always in fierce competition, and thus what someone else had could be taken by force, and thus the will of the strong prevailed. Their primitive societal structure was governed by a shaman-women who facilitated sacrifices to Kong. While all the forces of nature were divine and mysterious to the Skull Islanders, none was more powerful than Kong. They believed that by offering him sacrifices timed with tremors in the earth, they might be granted respite from his wrath. The men of their tribe went through facial scarification as a rite of passage, as they formed new identities represented by the markings on their face. The shaman women led the loosely guided tribe through their maternally transferred title, with each one surrounded by acolytes. The girl chosen for sacrifice was taken from her family, who were allowed to make her ceremonial necklace out of hair, feather, and bone, before they were offered, drugged or screaming, to the beast-god.
	Volucerictis were insectivorous mammals boasting 15 to 18 inch wingspans related to the Terapusmordax. At dusk they emerged from their roosts in caves or hollow trees to hunt with their impressive night vision. Being fiercely territorial, solitary individuals and mated pairs would tolerate no interlopers near their roosts, particularly when they were guarding young. It was not unheard of for individuals to die in airborne disputes. If a larger carnivore chose to prey on Volucerictis they would defiantly fight, scratch and bite their opponents until their last breath.
	Guar were a species of cattle, whose being identical to mainland Asiatic species suggested that they had arrived on Skull Island recently, possibly in the last thousand years. This timeframe suggested that they had been brought to the island by the original human inhabitants. The Guars survived surprisingly well in the jungle. Their horns made them formidable foes to their main predator, the Venatosaurus, and their dark coloration allowed them to blend in to their jungle surroundings.
	Burglar Monkeys were a species of one to two foot long monkeys that were more akin to tarsiers and loruses than true monkeys. They could be found climbing in the jungle's high canopy eating fruit, nuts, flower buds, insects and eggs. Not being especially fast, or in possession of defensive structures, Burglar Monkeys avoided predators by hiding in communal dens during the day and emerging at dusk, when their keen senses allowed them a greater edge.
	Howlers were flying rodents with four to five foot wingspans that lived in the jungles of Skull Island. With their leathery wings, sharp teeth, eerie calls, and bulbous eyes, the bat-like predators searched the dark for birds, rats, large insects, and lizards. A favorite food of theirs was the Skull Island White Bat, which they tore from their roosts as they slept in the daytime, or hunted at dusk.
	Skull Island White Bats were a small species with seven to nine inch wingspans that were not true bats. They were instead an analagous species with rodent ancestry. Despite this, they had large ears and hunted insects and centipedes in the night by sonar.
	Main article: Terapusmordax. Terapusmordax were a species of flying rodent with a eight to ten foot wingspan, and a stench that Project Legacy scientists recorded as being enough to make noses bleed.
	Skin-birds were another flying rodent with a five to seven foot wingspan. They lived in solitude and were more of gliding rodents than fliers. Not being particularly adept at flying, and thus prevented from catching prey on the wing, Skin-birds hunted lizards and other terrestrial prey. They were one of the only species unaffected by Terapusmordax's scent, and would fly into their roosts to prey on their young, but had to be fast in this practice or they would be overwhelmed by the larger creatures.
	Main article: King Kong. Megaprimatus kong were eighteen to twenty-five foot tall apes that had been hunted nearly to extinction by Vastatosaurus rex at the time of Skull Island's discovery. While they had lived on the island for many thousands of years, the Megaprimatus were certainly not native to the island and were likely brought from mainland Asia. While they physiologically resembled African gorillas, it is theorized that they descended from Gigantopithecus. Regardless, they had vastly increased in size in a short time, whether as a response to Skull Island's harsh environment or through selective breeding none can be sure. Ape effigies left by the original human inhabitants of Skull Island point to their being revered by those people.

Gallery

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  A Howler

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  A Terapusmordax capturing a Skin-bird

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  A Megaprimatus skull

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  Two Megaprimatus fight a Vastatosaurus rex

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  A young Megaprimatus mourning its parent

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  A Foetodon eating a young Megaprimatus

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  An adult Megaprimatus crushing a Foetodon

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  Kong artwork

References

This is a list of references for Skull Island mammals. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: ^[1]