Lore:Duneripper

Dunerippers
	A Duneripper (Legends)
Type	Beast (Reptile)
Range	Hammerfell, Northern Elsweyr
Appears in	ESO, Legends

Dunerippers are carnivorous desert-dwelling reptiles with protective scales on their backs. A duneripper can reach the length of three horses, and its armored tail is covered in chitinous scales. Dunerippers are ambush predators, and have a digestion system that requires only a modicum of food to sustain their large bodies. The duneripper burrows beneath the sand, sometimes lying motionless for days, waiting to strike its victim.^[1] Redguard nomads claim that dunerippers of the Alik'r are a fraction of the size they used to be when the Ra Gada first encountered them.^[2]

The first sign of an imminent duneripper attack is its dorsal crest piercing the sand, causing the sand to churn like a whirlpool.^[3]^[1] They rip through the dunes with their fins, and should a bite not incapacitate its prey, the duneripper will try to clamp down on it, roll onto it, constrict it, or burrow back into the sand to smother its prey.^[3] The duneripper will also sweep its tail around to upend its prey, and it exhibits shorts bursts of impressive speed.^[3] The Giant Scorpion is known to fall prey to dunerippers.^[1]

Their armored plates and durable neck spines generally fetch good prices at markets.^[4] Duneripper blood is believed to prolong life by the people of Bergama, though that is untrue as duneripper blood can be detrimental to one's health if handled poorly.^[4] The spine of a duneripper can been used to make drinking horns.^[5] The spine has also been made into dowsing sticks.^[1]

They share many similarities with the sea-drakes found in the waters of Black Marsh,^[1] and are comparable in appearance to the Duneracers of Craglorn.