Gryken

The Gryken is a highly vicious marten, descended of the European pine marten

(Martes martes) that lives in grykes and crevices of karst on islands in the Mediterranean Basin, 5 million AD, in The Future is Wild. Grykens are only found on the isolated karst Mediterranean islands of barren mountains and woven plateaus. It is the scrofas' greatest enemy. Although grykens go after scroflets, they never attack adult scrofas.

Down in a narrow gryke, this slim, agile creature (while tracking prey such as scrofas) can wind from side to side, following the tortuous route of the chasm. Now and again the gryken will stop and poke its head out of a gryke, keeping an eye on a scrofa herd. Then its head goes down again and it continues to negotiate the labyrinth of fissures that separates the clints. In places, a gryken's path is interrupted by a gaping hole, an entrance to the network of subterranean caverns that lies below the karst.

Its triangular face is crossed by a thick black band which helps to camouflage its beady eyes when peering out through vegetation. The sleek body is also striped, breaking up the gryken's contours and helping it to blend in with the vegetation.