Tulip Snakes, also known as Flower Snakes, are a species of reptilian creature found on a number of moons with the Thistle Nebula, though not overall common on any of said moons they've been known to inhabit.
Anatomy[]
Despite their namesake, they are more closely related to flying lizards of earth, only unlike them they have evolved powered flight. Their overall size and wingspan are comparable to that of an earth macaw, their wings made up of a large skin membrane. Their heads are rounded with a broad jaw, and two sets of small eyes. Tulip Snakes are variable in appearance when it comes to their fans behind their heads, with three known variants currently studied: red, yellow, and blue. It's unclear why differences like this are evident, though it is believed to be a form of camouflage against much larger predators, along with a mating display.
Behavior[]
Although small and notably harmless, tulip snakes are surprisingly fearless and stubborn to a fault and will rarely flee from a predator when confronted after observations confirmed this. Even towards foreign species such as humans, tulip snakes hardly appear fearful of them, and many a report would tell of a few curious tulip snakes resting on the heads and shoulders of researchers out of curiosity more than anything else.
Males of the species had been observed to perform a unique form of mating display to attract females: males would find larger objects at least twice their own weight and lift them off the ground to show their physical strength. Males during such contests will also sometimes fight over said objects in order to take objects for themselves. During their mating seasons, sometimes they will do the same thing to living creatures, with some researchers also a victim of this behavior. However, this is rare for anything larger than a human being, as a tulip snake would attempt to do so, only to give up and move on to another object.