Spangled Spearrunner

250 MPE

Serinaustran Steppe

~~~

Spearrunners, the carnivore serezelles, are the most successful members of their clade now, as the spread of razorgrasses favored the success of the circuagodonts better able to consume them and led a majority of the herbivore forms toward extinction. These predators, which emerged in the late Pangeacene from omnivore ancestors, are noted for their long spear-like bills with which they catch and kill small, fast prey - including, now, the circuagodonts that spelled doom for their earlier relatives. Spearrunners are very agile, fast running animals, some species attaining speeds approaching 60 miles per hour in short bursts, while others are endurance hunters, maintaining more moderate 20-30 mile per hour gaits for many minutes at a time to run down prey to exhaustion. In general, fast-running ambush hunters occur on Serinarcta; in Serinaustra, species isolated here have switched tactics. They are now pursuit hunters, harrying their victims until they fall behind their groups, and following the ever-migrating herds north and south across the steppe with the seasons, a specter always there, waiting in the wings to snatch the stragglers which fail to keep pace.

The spangled spearrunner is the largest southern species, reaching a shoulder height of 3.5 feet and 6 feet high at the beak-tip with the head lifted. A solitary species, for most of the year the sexes live apart, hunting prey singly, and differing little in appearance. They are tall, gangly animals with brown spotted feathers and mostly featherless legs. They excel in hunting in tall grasslands, but with tiny feet and little insulation, they fare poorly in deep snow, and are strongly migratory, following smaller grazers relentlessly toward the northern edges of the steppe at the first chill of autumn and not returning until the ice is gone come spring. Then, they arrive back just in time to hunt the younger calves of the bigger circuagodonts that stayed behind through the cold. With solid beaks that function more like pick axes than the narrower spears of ancestral species, they knock prey with a debilitating blow on the back of the head, dropping them unconscious before digging their bills deep into the body to feed on the innards; hard parts are discarded, for the spearrunner cannot chew, and such remains are then left for stronger-jawed scavengers.

Spangled spearrunners get their name from the appearance of the male; while not immediately apparent when viewed at a distance, it sports a large head crest and a ridge of feathers from head to tail which normally lie flat along the body. When excited, however, they rise up as a single lengthy crest, the wiry feathers on the head growing as long as 3 feet. When lifted, this ridge of plumes reveals iridescent blue feathers concealed at other times; these plumes catch the sunlight and shimmer almost as if glowing, catching the eye of females even from far away as well as intimidating rivals, both other males and other species intent on stealing the spearrunner's kills. Males shake their plumage enthusiastically when a female approaches to inspect him, rattling together the base of each quill to produce a rhythmic beat that accompanies his visual display, while this component is absent during other conflicts, where instead the male emits low, booming growls from deep in his throat. Like most highly ornamented male animals, the spangled spearrunner's role in fatherhood begins and ends with the mating; females will give birth to a single chick the following spring and attend it entirely on her own for a relatively short period of just a few months. Young are fully independent when only around half adult size, when they may still occasionally fall prey to adults of their own species, which is an indiscriminate hunter of anything it can catch. Young often take shelter from their enemies among herds of larger herbivores, much too big to hunt, and will catch small prey animals disturbed by their movement, only to be driven out once they grow big enough to pose a threat to the young of their unwilling hosts - but by then, the spearrunner is nearly adult, and now has few predators still able to catch it.