TAS Library Entry for the Most Popular Pet of the Imperium: The Canar

The ubiquitous, and popular Canar is a creature known throughout human society, and can be found in virtually all environments habitable by humans throughout the Festrian Reach, as well as explored regions of the Old Empire. As such, it is ranked among the “Cradle animals,” that rare group of creatures believed to have evolved on the theorized birth-world of humanity. What citizen of the Imperium has not heard of the Canar’s utility as a primitive early warning system in the mines of antiquity, alerting miners to deadly gas with their strident call? Who has not heard tales of their later utility, to similar purpose, on the earliest legendary "Seed" ships, alerting the heroic founders of our species to fouling air on their rudimentary craft? That the Canar was also prized as a songbird is a source of some puzzlement today, as the Canar does not so much sing as mutter, gabble, and perhaps honk, the Canar’s wide flat beak appearing to be better adapted for dredging than for production of song.

Canars are mostly aquatic birds, and may be found in both fresh water and sea water. From this, its connection to a mythical Canar Islands seems founded. Historically, the nature of its initial habitat is in dispute. Earliest records indicate the creatures preference to be areas such as orchards note that the Canar build their nests in bushes or trees. Since their body length is generally, from base of neck to base of tail, approximately 30 cm, this seems unlikely; their webbed feet, too are better adapted for use in acquatic environmnets rather than arboreal.

The role of the creature in human society, historically, is obscure, and made more so by the multiplicity of languages used by most pre-Old Empire human societies, and the intermingling of the same into the predecessors of Old Galactic. Flying, egg laying and feathered species are understood to have been widespread among human societies from the earliest days, and appear to have often been domesticated, although to what purpose is not widely agreed upon in historical sources. This species was often kept as a pet, as they are even today. Many are found on worlds and even on shipboard, throughout the Imperium. They are companionable creatures, bonding well to their owners, so it is understandable that this should have been the case in antiquity. Canar, in additional to their most common role in human society as pets, are in some few backward areas farmed for their meat, eggs, and feathers.