Wood Devil

The wood devil is a large vultrorc native to northern Serinarcta's upland regions. Common in the nightforest, it is much less often seen in more eastern floodforest regions, and prefers to hunt on solid, dry ground. Descended from the red devil, it is more compact to better navigate forested habitat rather than plains, and around 1,500 pounds lighter, averaging 3,500 pounds and stretching in excess of 17 feet. Wood devils are solitary predators that stalk prey in shadowed forest understory, pouncing on thorngrazers and small or juvenile cygnosaurs and skulossi, grappling with powerful forearms and bear-like claws but killing with their robust jaws. The snout of the wood devil is much shorter than its fore-bearer's, to be less visible as it stalks through thick vegetation. It is now shaped to deliver most of the bite force into a narrow area at the edge of the beak, and it can still split even the longest bones of its prey to access the marrow within, so that it is a very efficient feeder and can use most of a carcass. Male wood devils have developed horn-like keratin growths on the top of the bill at its base, of the same structure as the tooth-like cutting serrations on the beak, which are used to fight other males along with the spiked tail. Females are territorial too, but less vicious toward each other, and several of their territories may overlap with that of a single male.

Wood devils are predators, but not exclusively, as they will also consume plant foods to pad out their diets, especially fruits and nuts produced occasionally in great excess by forest trees. These animals are adapted to gorging and fasting, feeding gluttonously when food is available in surplus during the summer and autumn seasons, and then going long periods without a meal when prey is scarce throughout the winter. They are not migratory, spending their lives within a single territory, and in late autumn they become lethargic and their metabolism slows. Retreating to a dense thicket, a cave, or some other quiet place, the wood devil will spend most of the winter drifting in and out of a deep sleep, though it does not truly hibernate and will quickly rouse if disturbed - its size and ferocity means it can rest wherever it likes with little worry of being bothered by other forest animals as it slumbers. 

Adult wood devils have no predators of their own, but they do have rivals. Kelpies, an intelligent, sound-mimicking species of unicorn, especially hate them, and will torment them whenever the opportunity permits. The two animals compete for similar food sources, and both animals will kill the other's young. Kelpies will make efforts to lure wood devils to the edges of their territories by imitating the calls of the devil to trick it into thinking its territory is under attack. By doing so on the very edge of two territories, it draws both the land owners together, and brings them into battle which may, if it is lucky, result in the death of one of them, reducing the kelpie's competition. The wood devil is much stronger and more dangerous than the kelpie, and the latter could never confront one directly. But the kelpie is smarter, and it is knows it. Wood devils, for all their physical prowess, have not yet evolved a way to counter this exploitation. Kelpie interference may be contributing to the increasingly small size of the wood devil, which like its precursor reaches sexual maturity before its adult size. Fewer wood devils may simply be able to reach their potential, as the biggest ones are the most pressing threat to the kelpie, and the most likely to be goaded into battle with its neighbors, potentially to fatal consequence.