possible Strider Clutchmother replacement sighted

[Kahane]

Greetings all, occasional visitor and first time poster here! I've been loosely following the Cataclysm pet news ever since the NDA was lifted and I remember there were some concerns about the Strider Clutchmother being MIA in the beta. Well I have some potentially good news, while flying through the Swamp of Sorrows to check out a neutral port town I spotted this on the ground below me:

It's a bit hard to make out on account of the zones lovely yellow atmosphere, but the distinctive cyan and orange colouring is clearly there.
The bad news is that I don't have a high level Hunter copied over, so I can't toss out beast lore to confirm that this is a tamable. If anyone in the beta wants to confirm you can find these "Swampstriders" in the North-Eastern section of the zone, they're close to the coastline but not actually on the beach.

Also if they are tamable then this will no longer be a 'rare' skin, there's several of them wandering about.

[Saturo]

See? The skin is safe!

[Valashe]

Interesting. I'd love to see one tamed and taken out of the murky light that pervades the SoS and see if the colors match.

[Vephriel]

Wow, nice catch! I think Blizzard really is doing their best to make sure no skins go missing completely. I'm not surprised it took so long to find these though, when the replacement could have been anywhere in the world.

Now to just find those turquoise scorpids. :3

[Gimlion]

Figures she's just now being found... How many high level players ACTUALLY go to the Swamp of Sorrows any more?

[Kahane]

Figures she's just now being found... How many high level players ACTUALLY go to the Swamp of Sorrows any more?

Well it's more then just that, the zone actually isn't fully implemented yet from what I've seen. There's still sections which appear to be completely depopulated and these new striders may have only been introduced in this latest patch.

[Ryai]

Figures she's just now being found... How many high level players ACTUALLY go to the Swamp of Sorrows any more?

Strange- I thought SoS was a 35/45 zone. Or wait was it changed..

At any rate this is a Damn good sign that will stop people crying out skins are being retired.

So the only ones really MIA are as said, the scorpids.

@ Kahane: damn good point, might be possible that the scorpids are now ingame too. So keep your eyes folks those with Beta.

[VelkynKarma]

Oh goody! I hope these are tamable...I like the striders, but not enough to use one of my 5 slots on them. When Cata comes I'd love to get one when I have extra slots, and it'll be good if this skin is still available...

~VelkynKarma

[Undra]

Good job Kahane

[Kalliope]

MUCH LOVE! Thank you for finding her.

Knew she had to be around somewhere!

[Sarayana]

Nice find!!!

I kinda had a sneaky suspicion Blizz wouldn't retire a skin altogether - after all, they've put the effort into creating the skin to begin with, and I can't think of a single mob skin that's been removed 100% from the game (barring the early, broken models that were really upgraded, not removed). But it's fantastic to have confirmation. Thanks!

[Wassa]

Yay!

[Rhyela]

This is great for lovers of that skin, but I'm a lover of the rare. Chances are I'll pick up the Clutchmother herself before she's gone. Nevertheless, awesome find and thank you SO much for bringing it here!!!

[Teigan]

Great find, thank you!
If the Clutchmother herself is no more, I'll still pick her up for sentimental reasons, but I'm glad to see her kind will thrive, prosper and more than likely be the object of an annoying quest in which they never have meat, beaks or other relevant body parts.

[cowmuflage]

Ah Ryai it would stop only some of the complaining! people are still going to whine about not being able to get the rare!

[Quin]

Thank you for the pictures and the updates! It definitely looks as if the skin is safe at least.

[Bulletdance]

This is probably a crazy thought,but wasn't there tigers there before? Should we start to worry about the tiger skin? I hope they are still in stv.

[Kalliope]

This is probably a crazy thought,but wasn't there tigers there before? Should we start to worry about the tiger skin? I hope they are still in stv.

Cheetahs, not tigers.

[Pent]

The Swampstrider is tameable, and it looks just like Clutchmother to me.

[Sarayana]

Yup, that's her. Good to know the skin will be available. I'm not letting my girl go though, no way no how. But it's good to know.