Slingers - how do they survive?

[ISV Venture Star]

I love the idea of Slingers. But I can't work out how the population is maintained. Animals must be capable of producing more than 1 child per individual. Any ideas?

[tm20]

maybe the "head" is able to mate with multiple bodies, or a "body" is able to mate with multiple heads. this isn't mentioned in the book but it's just a theory

[Advent]

Maybe they just have a very high survival rate.... perhaps the poison in their heads deters predators.
If one head makes one body, they'd have the same population every hundred years...

[Human No More]

I would guess that sometimes, a body may produce more than one head in it's lifetime... Some do die in each generation, as the Na'vi collect abandoned heads and use them as a weapon.

[Raiden]

Originally Posted by Human No More

I would guess that sometimes, a body may produce more than one head in it's lifetime... Some do die in each generation, as the Na'vi collect abandoned heads and use them as a weapon.

You know, this has been kinda bugging me.

In the project 880 script, they did do this, but in the movie, they just use normal arrows envenomed with Slinger poison to kill the Sturmbeest (check the "revised" script). Between the project 880 script and the revised one, it's hard to tell which is canon and which isn't, since 880 is kind of half-canon. Regarding that, I really really want the Slinth to make it into Avatar 2.

Back on topic, you're right, it only makes one new Slinger at a time. Maybe it has a very short reproductive cycle and the bodies that make the heads are very durable? Also, since each head makes a body, after a head matures, there will be two bodies making new heads. This actually sort of resembles how some cnidarians (jellyfish, anenomes, etc.) produce offspring, but they makes tons of them at a time.

Either way, if the Slinger and the Slinth and some kind of killer athropods (I wanna see something that doesn't look majestic for once) don't make it into Avatar 2, I will be angryfaic.