A Nightclaw was an animal that was native to the planet Vulcan which on the prohibited list within the United Federation of Planets and thus protected from hunters. Nayfack as part of his duties with the Bureau of Conservation infiltrated a hunting ring and befriended one of the hunters who took him to his home where Nayfack saw trophies of an Earth Gorilla, a Vulcan Nightclaw and a small grouping of Aldebaran Sand eels. (TNG novel: Here There Be Dragons)