Unlike the halfway civil ranphyx, the cherfers of Elom's deserts are vicious killers, herd beasts so wrathful that they have been known to turn on their own kind and gore them to death with sharp hooves and their bony snouts. Despite efforts to eradicate the cherfers, they not only remain, they thrive.
Newborn cherfers are born aggressive; xenobiologists have noted that litters begin fighting each other with their vestigial nasal horns. These horns fall away while the young foals nurse, and the bony ridge jutting from their snout grows as the cherfer attains maturity. The beasts age quickly, going from stumbling foalhood to kicking, spitting youth in less than six standard months. Like so many creatures of the plains, cherfers are omnivorous. Their preferred meal, however, is flesh. Although small burrowing mammals make up a large part of the cherfer diet, the beasts will not hesitate to attack larger mammals, ranphyx, or even Elomin if food is scarce.
Cherfer coats are rough and brightly-colored. Red, orange and yellow stripes on an off-white base coat are common, though green or blue stripes are not unheard of. Cherfers in colder climates tend towards light base coats while those in more temperate regions grow steadily darker.
Cherfers are quite stupid, the cleverest could not best a bantha in a battle of wits. Like so many other beings, however, a cherfer's stupidity is inversely proportionate to its viciousness. Herds, called vlaktors by the native Elomin, are temporary social units; cherfers scrap within their vlaktor, get thrown out, wander, and, provided they survive their time alone, rejoin another vlaktor by laying open all comers. Cherfer vlaktors number between five to 30 individuals, depending on the season and available prey. Anyone attacked by a cherfer vlaktor is an unhappy being indeed, as the creatures attack in force, run their prey to ground, and gore them to death. Some criminal gangs even export cherfers to decadent worlds for arena sport. Although captive cherfers can live 15 standard years or more, wild ones rarely do.
These ruthless habits have bred a powerful beast; cherfers are neither large nor strong, but tend instead to be tough, fast and tenacious. An angry cherfer Will not flee a fight until its opponent drops. Even then, some have been know to gore their prey to death while selfsame prey tries to crawl to safety. A cherfer seeking an elusive burrower will tear up meters of ground to get at it. Elomin miners and farmers despise cherfers and hunt them down whenever possible. This, however, merely keeps the cherfer population in check; the beasts reproduce quickly, grow to maturity with speed, and either live or die by their sinew and spite. | 
