Salome

Dialogue
"Hello, how are you this fine day?"
 * &rarr; I'm fine, how are the animals doing?
 * Without any pets added:
 * "What animals? Maybe if there were some to take care of, I wouldn't be so bored. If you have a pet with you, our Tamer, Emryd, will give it the perfect home."
 * With an albino rat added:
 * "Without pigment in their skin, eyes, and fur to protect them, albino rats eschew the harmful sun in favor of deep caves. The largest known rodents, they'll eat anything and live long, healthy lives."
 * With a black bear added:
 * "When berries are in season, black bears gorge exclusively on the starchy fruit, but their normal diet is better balanced than your average human. With all that energy stored up, it's no coincidence that bears hibernate when berry season ends."
 * With a black moa added:
 * "Once thought to be just a mythical beast, tales of vicious black moa attacks are still told to scare Canthan children into behaving. Who knows? The stories might be true; unlike other moas, the black moa is a carnivore."
 * With a black widow added:
 * "The black widow has a distinctive hourglass marking, possibly to warn her enemies that time's running out, which isn't far from the truth. The spider uses this specialized organ to sense heat sources from both friend and foe."
 * With a black wolf added:
 * "Black wolves are the epitome of social ferocity: they never relinquish prey while feeding, even if a pack member is attacked."
 * With a crane added:
 * "Canthan legends say that, long ago, the crane flew too close to the sun and singed its wings, making it fear the sky and stay grounded. But these endlessly graceful creatures, with their pale, pristine plumage, fly quite well. You see them on land so much because their long legs are perfect for wading the shallows in search of tasty marine morsels."
 * With a crocodile added:
 * "With highly tuned sensory organs, crocodiles are excellent hunters. Surprisingly, this also gives them a sensitive side. A crocodile's hearing is so acute that a mother can actually hear unhatched babies inside their eggs."
 * With a dune lizard added:
 * "They may look silly to us, but the frills on a dune lizard vent the creature's excess heat. Reptiles don't sweat and desert life is harsh, so those frills keep them alive while thickly calloused feet shield them from burning sand."
 * With a flamingo added:
 * "Heat, heart...there are a dozen theories on why flamingos stand on one foot. My daughter tells me it's so ducks only run into them half the time. Ha ha! She might be right."
 * With a hyena added:
 * "I love the sound of the hyenas. They are very communicative with dozens of vocalizations, of which only a couple sound like a laugh. Elonian myth claims that hyenas were present in the Desolation when Abaddon was imprisoned, and they're still laughing at him to this day."
 * With an iguana added:
 * "Its most important muscle, an iguana's tail is almost as long as its body. They use it like a whip to defend themselves, or to propel themselves in water. Around here, iguanas are always moving."
 * With a Jahai rat added:
 * "Intelligent and fiercely curious, Jahai rats are masterful climbers; their tails give them excellent balance. In Cantha, rats are even a sign of prosperity. That's true here at the menagerie, too."
 * With a jingle bear added:
 * "Although physically resembling polar bears, jingle bears are distinct, with empathic traits. Sensitive to emotions, they spread joy and are a salve for sadness. People say the jingle bear is a gift from Dwayna herself."
 * With a lion added:
 * "In Elona, the lion's roar is audible up to four leagues away. If that isn't the best way to scare off intruders, I don't know what is. But, here on our plains, we usually just hear contented purring."
 * With a lioness added:
 * "A classic example of cooperation, the lionesses in a pride often give birth at the same time to share nursing and other maternal duties. We'll let you know if an event like that happens here."
 * With a lurker added:
 * "The red color of the lurker's shell, like many crustaceans, is from an exclusive diet of tiny shrimp."
 * With a lynx added:
 * "In the wild, a lynx will happily chew large bones all day. Here at the menagerie, we have suppliers acquiring special chew toys all the time."
 * With a Melandru's stalker added:
 * "Once favored by Melandru and by Rangers from long ago, wild Melandru's stalkers have been driven to near extinction by the Searing. Just know we're doing our part to keep them from disappearing completely."
 * With a moa bird added:
 * "Moa birds have been domesticated by ranchers both for the enormous, beautiful eggs they lay and for their love of dandelions. Many people call them striders, on account of their long, powerful legs."
 * With a moss spider added:
 * "They're called moss spiders because they lay eggs in the moss near rivers and lakes. Newly hatched spiders feed on the larva and grubs that thrive in moist environment."
 * With a mountain eagle added:
 * "Introduced to us by Dwarven falconers, we've only seen the majestic mountain eagles in the Shiverpeaks. But their stamina suggests they could actually have quite an extensive range. How extensive that range is, we don't know. Have you ever followed an eagle through the mountains? Not easy."
 * With a polar bear added:
 * "Polar bears have astounding adaptations to their snowy habitat. Wide paws like snowshoes help this heavy animal walk quietly and safely over snow, while the fur absorbs sunlight for warmth. I could go on and on, but you'd rather just go see them yourself, wouldn't you?"
 * With a phoenix added:
 * "Bred as a decorative showpiece for the Emperor's palace, the phoenix is as tough as it is beautiful. Canthans believe that as long as there's one phoenix in the palace, there will also be one emperor. Two phoenixes would be bad luck then, wouldn't they?"
 * With a rainbow phoenix added:
 * "Even though it's big, the rainbow phoenix is easily spooked by groups. It was long thought to be imaginary; people who glimpsed its fleeing form would mistake its ethereal beauty for a trick of the light or a mirage."
 * With a raven added:
 * "Ravens are a major Norn totem animal. With black feathers, keen eyesight, and a reputation as cunning scavengers, people across many cultures associate ravens with mischief and stealth. Some see this as a positive, others as a negative."
 * With a reef lurker added:
 * "It's a common misconception that reef lurkers developed their color as camouflage for the sea, but like most crab species, diet has the most influence on hue. Reef lurkers eat blue algae along the Jade Sea, so you can see where they get that beautiful blue color."
 * With a tiger added:
 * "As the largest and strongest of cats, tigers symbolize power and royalty. Canthans consider the tiger the king of the beasts, not the lion."
 * With a warthog added:
 * "Pig, hog, swine...such derogatory terms. Don't you think for a moment that warthogs are dirty or smelly. To forage for food, they rely on a refined olfactory sense, which only works if they're very clean (otherwise they just smell themselves). They're really one of the cleanest animals in Tyria."
 * With a white crab added:
 * "White crabs subsist not only on coral, but also on fish bones. This habit of ossiphagy leads to a pale coloration. Luckily for us, we keep them in nutriment up to their eyestalks."
 * With a white moa added:
 * "White moas were only recently discovered in the snowy mountains and quickly became a rancher's favorite. They stress easily, however, and white moas kept in warmer climates start to molt white feathers. Ranchers do this to harvest feathers, but we think it's healthier to keep them in a snowy environment."
 * With a white tiger added:
 * "The Zaishen Order has seen a lot of beautiful white creatures. Most live in the snow and use the color as camouflage, whether they're hunter or prey. Yet white tigers certainly don't blend into the greens and ambers of the Echovald Forest. Canthan lore says it's because tigers are vain and like to stand out."
 * With a white wolf added:
 * "You probably remember that white wolves are camouflaged for the snow year round. But did I mention that when they curl up to sleep, they use their tail as a blanket to keep their faces warm? We've tried giving them a warmer habitat, but they just won't have it."
 * With a wolf added:
 * "We keep every one of a wolf's forty-two teeth clean and sharp with Fibrous Mandragor Roots to chew and tug on. Since they're carnivores, the wolves don't actually eat the roots, but they sure do destroy them fast."