AC2:Bestiary/Niffis
Original Link (now dead) - http://ac2.turbinegames.com/index.php?page_id=141
Niffis
Plural: Niffis
Group: Pod
Offspring: Nub
Location: Omishan
Natural Allies: None
Natural Enemies: None
Niffis live along warm, sunny coastlines, typically clustered around tidal pools. They absorb energy directly from the sun through small basking wings; to avoid overheating, Niffis prefer to travel with their tentacles dipped in water, which regulates their temperature. These prehensile tentacles are also used to collect food (typically shellfish)—as well as handfuls of sand, which they also ingest. A Niffis' body builds calcium deposits around a sand grain, which eventually migrates toward their shells. The pearly shell of a Niffis is thus a network of thousands of such sand grains.
Niffis float due to the fact that their bodies are filled with hydrogen, a byproduct of their digestion process. According to theory, they evolved this feature as a means to live out of water, safe from the reach of submerged predators.