They have no known natural enemies (nothing on their home world is able to make a dent in their impregnable hides) and no particular difficulty surviving in almost any environment. It is likely that they evolved sentience due to competition for mating. They have seventeen sexes, so finding sixteen mates of the appropriate sex (so they can have one of their litters, numbering in the hundreds) is their central preoccupation. They have unbelievably complicated and difficult cultural mores centering around mating competition, and an Orfa who mates successfully usually gets to do so by outsmarting many of its peers. Thus they are very intelligent and are able to perceive subtle causes of events and fine levels of meaning. They are also happy to loaf once they have fulfilled their mating imperat