most times for sometype of creature you want to create what's called a rig for moving your character. for some good maya tutorials on how to create a rig (which usually use ik, skeletons, blendshapes, etc.) check out the rigging section at www.learningmaya.com. click the tutorialslinks button on the top left, then choose the rigging category and read a few of the tutorials.

https://www.learning-maya.com/index.p...art=0&search=*

or you can try clicking that link. that should take you directly to the rigging section.