So called because of their small pointy ears, the “Devils” have shown themselves to be the friendliest and smartest animals we’ve encountered so far (17 days planet side) here on Alchibah.

There are few birds on this planet and devils aren’t really birds so much as leathery winged mammals covered in soft fur, much like bats back on Earth. Adult devils stand about 14-16 inches tall and have wild colorings but the overall color scheme seems to be a devilish pink. They weigh about four pounds.

What caught our attention is that they are not afraid of us, quickly learn words and their meanings (at least for objects so far) and also have their own vocabulary. There are (or were) plenty of birds on Earth that could mimic human speech but these little devils actually understand the meaning and can put together very, very simple noun-verb type sentences.

Some of the early words of theirs that colonist Kara has observed:

Gup = Hi

Cappi = a local shellfish

Paac = small slizzard (another local animal)

PaacPaac = large slizzard

Lil’li = a fish in the river

Teh = the predominate pine-like trees in the area

Panna = the electric tree we discovered

More words will be added shortly as well as their behavior patterns as Kara and other colonists interact and study these remarkable creatures.

They also seem to grasp simple concepts such as trading for food (ours for theirs) and greeting and leaving. I’d put their “intelligence” at about that of a human six-year-olds.

What the heck, they don’t cuddle like cats and dogs but we don’t have cats and dogs at the moment and actually, having someone (some thing) that understands us and that we can also understand is not a bad thing when starting a new life on a world far from Earth.