Raceraven

The raceraven is a species of rhynchodon aukvulture, descended from the aukrow and thus related closer to the tree-dwelling toucrows than to the giant aukvultures, that is native to southern Serinarcta's savannah region, where it is a predator of many things, but especially the newborn chicks of gantuans. Though more carnivorous, like toucrows most rhynchodons are forest-dwellers and good climbers - the raceraven, though, is an exception. It has adapted to the open ground, becoming a fast and enduring runner, and roaming the plains in small packs that work together to beat small prey out of hiding places in the grass and to snatch it up in their huge, crushing beaks. Though it still flies (and is even capable of long-distance migration), it does so only when it absolutely must, and may spend weeks at a time on the ground if food is plentiful.

 These hunters usually disable their victims ability to escape by snapping their spines with a vigorous shake, but do not necessarily kill their food before swallowing it, and this is most gruesomely demonstrated when they switch their sights to larger prey. Raceravens often follow larger injured animals in the habit of vultures, except they do not wait for them to die on their own. Such quarry is merely trailed until it is weak enough that the predators can mob it and start to eat it alive from behind, bite by gory bite. They cannot typically afford to wait for prey to die before feeding, as competition on the savannah is fierce, and the raceraven is likely to be displaced by larger, fiercer hunters as soon as carrion hits the ground. 

The raceraven is not just a cooperative hunter but also a communal breeder, which is dependent on the support of a social network of multiple adults in order to successfully raise chicks. Females are polygamous, bonding with two to four males, all of which assist in protecting and feeding her young, and each unable to know for sure who sired them. Chicks are raised in a variety of sites, as long as they are dark and enclosed, with both hollow tree trunks and underground burrows taken from other animals being equally suitable. Like toucrows and most other rhynchodons, fledging is delayed compared to many other seraphs. Newborns lack flight feathers, and chicks do not leave the nest for at least six weeks. This high dependence on the adult contributes to their need for more than two parents to provide for them. They are dependent on parental support for at least one year, and though females will leave their clan at that time, males may stay until nearly two years old in order to gain additional practice raising young by helping feed the next brood hatched by their parents.