The desman was a very rare creature and restricted to the Dyr Erib area. It measured 18 to 24 (including its tail and prehensile snout) and resembled a large vole or mole. Its teeth carried a vicious venom (desman venom) inducing spasmodic relaxing and tightening of the muscles in the walls of blood vessels. The desman lived in streams and marshes and was a blackish-brown in color. Its poison was particularly fatal to the huge caru, whose rotten flesh the desmans loved.