Great Crested Drakevulture

A formidable flying carnivore, great crested drakevultures rule the skies and bring death from above.

275 million years PE, the aukvultures have given rise to the largest flying carnivores Serina has yet seen. Long since abandoned by the civilizations that once cared for them, these once-tame birds quickly adapted to a less comfortable life on their own in the wild, growing bigger and meaner as the ice age gave way to the hothouse and the once frozen world grew warm. Once gentle scavengers, their descendants now have no qualms about hunting and killing, wetting their massive serrated beaks with the blood of live prey.

One of these species, the great crested drakevulture, soars over the open plains of both continents now, crossing the ocean on a day trip with a wingspan of 29 feet. This immense winged predator has no limits to its ranges, crossing the world as it pleases. It resembles a mythical dragon as it flies, as large as a small plane over the land, and its shadow crossing the flat ground below instills terror in every living thing that walks upon it. The grown drakevulture lacks significant threats; its only limits are the numbers of its prey, and with thorngrazers still immensely abundant in the north and sealumps diversifying across the melted south, food is everywhere for the king of the sky. It can afford to be particular, and individuals of this solitary species often develop their own specific prey preferences. Though its limbs are well-suited to stride overland, it is mainly an aerial hunter of inland regions, usually snatching prey off the ground in flight, and so its wings are shorter and wider than its ancestor, better suited to fly lower to the ground. It hunts its quarry from above in a three dimensional world that its terrestrial prey struggle to defend themselves in, sometimes even plucking the helpless young of herd animals right from within the protective rings of defensive adults which evolved to defend against land-based enemies. Grabbing a thorngrazer calf, or the chick of a sealump, it carries it a short distance and then tosses it to the ground. With its victim now dead - or functionally so - the dragon can then feed at leisure, away from protective relatives. Sharp pseudoteeth strip flesh from bone; a notch in the back of the jaw holds bones to crush them open. If sufficiently hungry it can use an entire carcass and leave very little for other animals, and its ten foot height keeps even large sawjaw packs at bay. Indeed it is often steals from other hunters, swooping in over their kills and taking what it wants - yet it can often afford to picky, and it may only select the richest morsels of its prey such as fat and a few organs, leaving the rest for others. When drakevultures call out over the grasslands, their booming, croaking voices split the air like thunder - and all things know it could choose them next.

Drakevultures are large and dangerous enough to nest and brood their young on the ground without fear of many other animals, albeit in higher places that do not flood. The female, whom is the larger sex, does the brunt of the work while the male, smaller but with a much more impressive crest, brings her food so that she does not need to leave her pupating young. Females often have multiple partners - it is in her benefit, for the males will help raise the young when they begin to fly about a week after they hatch, and there can be more than twenty chicks - too many for one adult to likely keep safe. At that time her duty is done, as their fathers take over all parental duties as soon as the young can keep up with them. Mortality is high, as the chicks are small and vulnerable at first, and most are taken by flying predators that can outmaneuver the adult. Because adults lack any predators at all, this is the primary population-limiting factor in their numbers.