Cha Ka

Pakuni are a species of small chimpanzee-like humanoids, ground-dwelling and bipedal but not fully upright in posture. They are primarily herbivores, though they do occasionally eat small animals.They know how to create fire using flints, and manufacture simple tools such as the sharpened sticks they use as defensive weapons. Pakuni display significant skill with representational art and have superstitious rituals that usually include chanting but they do not appear to understand music. They live in small family groups that construct strong bamboo enclosures as shelters. The family groups are territorial but they are quite capable of forming alliances and friendships with neighbors when resources are plentiful and they understand the concept of trade. Young Pakuni undergo a rite of adulthood in which they must steal the egg of a large predatory dinosaur to prove their worth.The Paku language is relatively primitive. It was created for the show by the linguist Victoria Fromkin, and is similar to the Kwa languages of West Africa. It has regular anti-penultimate stress, homorganic nasals, nasalization of vowels before nasals, and deletion of final vowels before vowel initial suffixes. The language eventually had about 200 words; "Pakuni" simply means "people" in this language. Ta, Sa, and Cha-Ka The three Pakuni who were regular characters in the show were the alpha male Ta, his female companion Sa, and the young male Cha-Ka. The exact familial relationship between these Pakuni was never explicitly stated. Ta was a domineering, egotistical and treacherous Paku who never came to trust the Marshalls. He could be bargained with, however, and although he usually attempted to cheat the Marshalls he was not particularly difficult to see through and trick. Sa occasionally seemed to be a moderating influence on Ta, but for the most part served as a follower. Ta is sometimes considered to be the "Alpha" Pakuni or a "witch doctor". He has knowledge of some of the workings of the Land of the Lost, which he disguises with useless herbs and phoney chanting and dancing to make it appear that he controls them. For example, he understands that the "Pylon Express" only opens when the three moons are aligned and so times his own "opening ritual" to coincide with that, and he knows that the effects of the poison from the carnivorous plant are only temporary and so hurried to sell the Marshalls a "cure" before it wore off on its own.Cha-Ka was the most favourably disposed toward the Marshalls. In the first episode the Marshalls rescued him from Grumpy the tyrannosaurus and splinted Cha-Ka's broken leg. Subsequently, Cha-Ka formed a close friendship with Holly in particular. Cha-Ka underwent the rite of adulthood in the episode "The Test", but he remained the junior member of the Pakuni group. Cha-Ka occasionally visited the Marshalls in their cave in High Bluff and after the earthquake that marked the beginning of season three, he was separated from Ta and Sa and moved in with them at the Builder temple.