Adventures in No Man's Sky: Decoding the Teddy Bear Phenomenon

Greetings, sentient being. In my last report, I was cataloguing the elusive Sassy-Butt Cow, rarely seen. I've gathered sufficient data on them (for now). While studying them, I began to ponder the phenomenon of bipedalism and its manifestation in other organisms. Some are unremarkable, like the goat chickens of Glip-glop 10.

During my travels, I have not only witnessed new types of humanoid creature, but also captured and tamed a few of them for long-term study.
 

Meet Grantreve, the alien teddy bear. She's almost as tall as me if you count those enormous ears. When I found her, she was just a pup. Today, she is of breeding age (more on this later). If brought to a planet similar to her homeworld, she can be induced to lay an egg.

The teddy bears, as I like to call them, are peaceful, even skittish, animals that almost never evolve as predatory species in their ecosystem.
 

In fact, when I first came upon Grantreve on the planet Iztaccihuatl, she nearly became dinner for this hungry Squirrelosaurus.
 

This is Adacy. He is what I call a 'mohawk' teddy bear. He is around the same size as his genetic cousin, Grantreve, though their homeworlds are light-years apart. He, too, sports thick protective scales on his shoulders and sloth-like claws on his five-toed paws. They use them for foraging and occasionally for self-defense but their usual strategy is to flee. That's why I placed some armor plating on his soft and vulnerable stomach.

I haven't figured out the algorithm yet for planets that likely harbor teddy bears. Perhaps I need to widen the parameters on my ship's computer. It may not be defined by the planet itself. It could possibly have to do with the type of star and the 'neighborhood' of the solar system that create the right conditions for teddy bear species to rise on certain planets. Who knows?

So off I go into the vastness of space, landing on all kinds of planets indiscriminately to find iterations of this ultra rare life form.
 

When I stopped on an unremarkable moon to refuel, I nearly crushed a new specimen with the landing gear on my ship.

 
This little guy was quite different from the rest. It lacked the protective scales and sharp claws. However, it had a nice pair of horns. This creature fled before I could carry out a detailed bioscan but it appears that the animal never developed armor or other defenses because predators are discouraged by the meer sight of those horns! They're probably never actually used (but could potentially be lethal).

Since I was all fueled up and there was no sign of any other teddy bears (they're good at hiding) I left in search of a water world.

A few planets later and I discover this organism.
 

This creature lived near the water but not in it. You can see some of its vestigial aquatic traits. Despite developing the characteristic sloth claws for finding various plant foods, its arms still resemble flippers. Other clues are the webbed toes and its shell, much like a sea turtle from old Earth. My favorite feature are the bunny ears.

A few cycles later, in a different system, on a similar planet, I scanned an animal that looked like X. cornbolatima had gone backwards in an evolutionary time machine.
 

 
This one was found wading in the shallow irradiated waters of Anoogadh. Still no claws on his flippers. Maybe in a few hundred millennia.

As a side project, I've been looking for a suitable planet like Grantreve's. Remember I said she reached reproductive age? While planet hopping we found one such planet and Grantreve was able to produce one egg. Naturally, the first thing I did was take it to the lab. Inside the egg, the tender embryo sleeps. During this stage, it responds very well to genetic modification.
What I want is a creature that will surely keep the predators at bay and the sentinel drones out of my settlement in the Ivnostr system.

Behold the monstrosity I created!
 

The creature, which I dubbed Itazi, grew to an unexpected size more quickly than I anticipated. Look at him towering over the Gek settler passing by in the background! The star nose is not my work; it must be a random mutation. It helps him sense his surroundings so I will not correct it. Actually, I kind of like it! Maybe I just feel proud looking upon the fruits of my labor.

Itazi will stay here, defending Segura City. There's no holding cell on my ship that can contain him. Well, he's bigger than my ship.

I'm sure the people of my settlement will be grateful. It's the least I could do since I'm so far away all the time.

I hope you enjoyed this journey through the stars. What type of exotic fauna will be next on the list as a focus of study?