Dazzledupe

Dazzledupes are stoatshrikes that have evolved as predators of smaller crested thorngrazers like loopalopes in the late hothouse savannah. They are small and neither especially fast runners, nor particularly strong, and at first glance don't seem capable of targeting large, cursorial prey species. Their legs are short, suited to dig and crawl through burrows - not to chase - and their short stature would seem to make grappling with larger animals difficult. Yet they are efficient killers, using a manner of hunting that is extraordinary and unique, involving luring their prey into a state of overstimulation so that their fight or flight instinct is inhibited. To do this, the dazzledupe does a spectacular dance - and one that is coordinated between not just one or two individuals, but many.

The dazzledupe is gregarious, not only among gravediggers but in general: these predators live in communal burrow systems that can extend for hundreds of feet in a circular radius, housing multi-generational clans of many animals. And this is one of the tricks to their success.  Their settlements are dug out in prime grazing territories, along routes regularly traveled by herds, and often situated just ahead of natural pinch points where uneven topography, such as an opening in a rocky hillside, cause animals to come together to pass through in high density. Dazzledupes don't build traps, but they do captivate their prey. When the herds come over their burrows they peer out of its many entrances and begin a strange periscoping maneuver, raising and lowering their especially long necks from their tunnel entrances. This catches the attention of any loopalopes close by, but the display is so unusual that it doesn't register to them as an immediate threat. Instead of running, or going along their way, they are likely to stand still and watch - and that is the idea.
When a target's interest acquired, the dazzledupes quicken the pace of their dance. The markings on their heads and necks are dizzying and chaotic, iregular bands of black, orange and white that blur together into a field of visual noise as more individuals join the display popping and up and down from the ground. The loopalope sees no bodies. for they are hidden underground - only pulsating, colorful necks rise up, and to the prey they must appear to be very small and harmless animals. Experienced adults, seeing the display begin, might turn away quickly and avoid making further eye contact - but the juveniles and yearlings don't know the danger, and their curiosity gets the best of them. They keep watching. As the swarm's movements grow frantic, the flashing colors and movements now overwhelm the prey's senses - it is highly adapted to focus on bright displays and to spot tiny movements in the grass that could betray a single approaching predator, but this show is too much to react to, and the animal appears to enter a trance-like state as the pack slowly comes closer and closes around it from all directions - and once it does so, it is doomed. As the dazzledupes leave their burrows to approach it, their dances become exaggerated spinning leaps and sideways flips, serving to keep the prey's rapt attention but not to trigger panic: the show is so mesmerizing, it cannot help but keep watching. Each time the hunters jump up, they come down one step closer to the stupefied thorngrazer, that still doesn't move, so utterly transfixed on the constant visual stimulation from all directions that it doesn't realize they've gotten so close until it's too late. 

At the last minute five or ten or even more of the hunters rush the hapless victim, now just a few steps away, and savagely bite at its neck, pulling it down with their combined weight. It tries to escape now, of course, but has little hope; the dazzledupes are small but have a secret weapon that makes them far more able to quickly kill such large prey than other animals of their size. Their beaks are crossed, like shears, top and bottom each sharply hooked. This lets them bite deep into the upper neck of the loopalope and then independently separate the two mandibles sideways, prying the very bones of its neck apart, and dislocating its spinal vertebrae to cause an almost instant paralysis. The pack begins cutting into it as soon as the animal stops fighting, often disemboweling it alive in a manner more typical of far larger carnivores, yet don't eat it just yet. They dismember the kill completely before feeding, carting carved chunks of the meat down their tunnels before anything larger arrives at the surface to take their meal away, and then eat in safety in the dark depths below.