Rectyne Monopod

The Rectyne monopod is a large herbivorous animal native to Rectys II. A grey-skinned beast weighing up to five tonnes, the monopod is named after its most distinctive feature; its single foot. By Rectys standards this is not unusual, but as the creature is the only native life-form regularly encountered offworld, it has acquired the simple name of “monopod”. Rectyne monopods are hunted and herded by the Klingons as food animals, and their hides are used to produce fine leather goods valued throughout the Klingon Empire. They have been exported to many Klingon worlds, and populations have been introduced to planets as distant as Qo’noS and Alhena. They are easily trainable but must be treated with caution; an enraged monopod can cause massive damage with its impressive leap. Several unwary people are killed every year. Klingons primarily use painstiks to control large animals without damaging their value on the market; this does not work with this creature, though. The painstiks can cause extreme cephalic pressures in monopod, occasionally causing its head to explode.

Chief Miles O'Brien once saw Klingon painstiks used on a monopod; the multi-ton animal was so shocked by a single touch that it jumped, in O'Brien's estimation, almost five meters. The painstiks indeed resulted in intolerable cephalic pressures in the animal; evidently its handler was an amateur, or else simply very angry.