Spore: Ulie Harems

Even on the plush grass that made the floor of their impromptu wrestling match the common male hit the ground with an audible thud as Licote overpowered him and threw his opponent into submission at his feet. The common whined and he pushed himself to his feet, backed away from the victor of this match. Licote watched his opponent limp away and then roared his victory to the sky. Males from neighbouring scrapes had watched the fight and growled lowly in response to him, but knew that the light furred, brown spotted, common arid cross probably wouldn't try to tempt their females to him so soon after a fight. He would have to rest first.
Indeed, Licote was tired, but he had watched the more experienced males at the lake and copied their displays. Roaring, raising his fur to make himself look bigger, charging across his scrape and over turning heavy rocks. He was encouraged when he saw several females were watching him from the boundary of the scrape territories, females who had not chosen males yet were more likely to gather to him, but so far, no female had actually given any indication that they would join him. But Licote was only a little disheartened by it; he did not expect he would draw a female to join him this year. He was young, new to the area, had not been able to keep a scrape near the main lake, and being a cross was not a help either, females were more interested in males who were their own breed. He had travelled all the way from Umbearwa, in the Blue Nation lands to the Golden lands in order to help at his uncle's stables who had been crying out for farm hands to deal with the need for war mounts and to get away from the threat of the Crimson Nation. But he had established his own scrape for the season all the same, if anything, he would be able to show off a bit for the females next year.
Licote returned to his tent and the fire he had been tending to before being challenged by the common male and was surprised to see two more ulie was sitting by his tent, building up the fire and roasting what looked like a barric on a makeshift spit. For a moment he thought other males had come to challenge him, and his fur raised in irritation, but as he neared he realised he knew one of them. “Seem?” The female raised her head and a smile spread across her muzzle when she saw the male's surprised reaction.
“Licote. Very impressive wrestling there.” the female said “Would you join us for a meal, Neera's treat, she caught us a large one.” Licote looked over to the other ulie to realise she too was female and bore a similar resemblance to Seem. Neera and Seem were sisters, he knew Seem from his uncle's stables where she worked with him in tending to the oarans and kees, Neera worked at the town's temple and was a year older then him and Seem.
“What are you doing here?”
“Guess, you silly noreg.” Seem said, laughing at the look Licote gave her and her sister. Making sure the Barric was cooking well, she and her sister got up and approached the male. “We're here to be with a rather sweet common arid male I met at work a half year ago. Neera came along when I told her about him too.” Seem said, wrapping her arms around Licote and licking his nose. Licote smiled down at Seem's smiling face and stroked a paw through her mane before extending his paw to Neera who joined their embrace.
“You now, I guess I could do with some roast barric.”

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Ulies are one of the few sentient species in the galaxy that retain a breeding season.

Ulie males (who want to breed) will gather at beaches, lakes and river banks to establish their scrapes. A scrape is an area of land where males will often erect a temporary shelter at the centre of their scrape for protection against the elements and as a place for the females in their harem to rest. It usually takes a few days for the males to establish their scrapes with the strongest and most experienced able to hold their territories near to the water. Scrapes are more sought after near the water because, being semi-aquatic animals, ulies need water not just to drink but to swim in. So females are more attracted to scrapes near the water, and so females know that the strongest males will be nearest to the water.

Females (who want to breed) will start to arrive once the males have settled their territory disputes and will choose males for traits they find desirable, individual strength, on how attractive he is, his personality and his prowess (at wrestling, hunting, work etc.). Many females will only mate with males they know, friends, neighbours, work colleagues, but females will also choose to mate with males they don't know but find attractive.

Although it is mostly males wrestling over females and scrape territory, females often wrestle too. During the weeks of the breeding season harems normally catch their own food from the wild, females wrestle to establish who is the more dominant hunter and which of them are the stronger, this helps them establish alphas for when they cooperate in hunts. Males find these wrestling matches arousing and, once the females have establish their hierarchy, often lead to mating.