#radstag

[dangerouscakes]

[dangerouscakes]

[kaicat2004]

How could you say no to those faces

[kaicat2004]

Radstag inspired fursona anyone? Idea from my gf

[notagutterrat]

had the idea for this drawing back in 2017 but wasn't really able to execute it how i imagined...so i decided to revisit the idea now that i've improved a bit!

[chromeantlers]

I was playin Fallout 4 Far Harbor recently, and I noticed somethin bout the Radstags there. As THE deer nerd yall knew I had to say somethin. Ramble incomin

So in literally every other iteration, the Radstags are just heavily irradiated deer. Huge missin patches of fur, an extra set of smaller legs on their chests and two heads (the inner eyes are blind for some reason). But aside from that, they're normal deer. They behave and look the same way.

HOWEVER!! The Radstags at Far Harbor are different. As you saw, normal Radstags have normal deer teeth. But Far Harbor deer don't.

These Radstags just so happen to have tusks. Much like a real species of deer, the Chinese Water Deer. Now, it's important to get into why Bethesda might've chosen these types of deer for inspiration.

As the name suggests, Chinese Water Deer are mainly found in Chinese and Korean rivers and other bodies of water. They're proficient swimmers, so this is a fittin habitat for them to live in. It's onea the reasons why I think Bethesda chose them as inspiration for the Far Harbor Radstags due to how much of a water-based environment the location is.

Though, the reason Chinese Water Deer live in wet areas like riversides is because the surroundin foliage is long enough to hide them due to how small they are. But Radstags are the size of larger deer, mainly elks. So I don't think Bethesda took that into consideration, just the water part.

My second reason is the tusks. In both Chinese Water Deer and Far Harbor Radstags, they have long tusks in the place of canine teeth. Both males and females have them for defense as the species as a whole do not possess antlers. Males tusks are typically larger as they use them the same way antlered deer use their antlers. Except these tusked deer can pull their tusks back out of the way to eat and draw them closer and outwards when in aggressive situations. Mainly to fight rival males for mates.

But the thing is, Radstags don't really need these tusks as they have antlers already. In Chinese Water Deer, they have these tusks because they can't grow antlers. Their tusks are their antlers. So why do Radstags grow both? It kinda confuses me, but maybe it's a radiation thing. I mean, Radstags also have an extra set of legs and a second head so idk.

But yeah, that's why I think the Far Harbor Radstags are based on the Chinese Water Deer. This was probably already obvious, but it came to mind while I was tryin and failin to sleep, so I had to write it down anyway.

[dangerouscakes]

[anreed-gallery]