An Oxtobaar.
The oxtobaar is one of the many apex predator species of Zeconis, native to the outskirts of its forests. In ancient times, primitive cultures considered the oxtobaar one of the seven major threats.
Appearance[]
The oxtobaar is a large flying creature, with a large and wide pair of heavily-muscled wings, a long tail, a short abdomen, and enormous head with two long ears. Females have a wingspan of four meters, a body length of two meters, a head forty centimeters in length, and a pair of rear legs with a trio of sharp claws on their feet. Males and females have vestigial front legs, while simales have a fully-functional pair.
It has three small, simple eyes that it uses to examine landscapes and detect distant flying prey and competitors. Its primary form of object detection is echolocation, rather than infrared, which it uses to easily see branches and prey up-close.
Behavior[]
The oxtobaar spends the majority of its life on the wing, constantly exploring the territory of its pride. It is light for its size due to its thinner bones, but also fragile, and as such its main method of predation is not through direct combat. It relies on leveraging its high velocity and extreme senses to swoop through the canopy and snatch prey in mid-flight, eating it on the wing. As it quickly escapes any enemies when flying, the oxtobaar does not have to prey on lone animals, but can instead pick one out of a herd before the rest of the animals can react.
Oxtobaar live in groups, with one alpha simale leading the pride and between five and twenty males and females serving xer. There are usually a head male and a head female who remain with the simale at all times to protect xer, and there is usually at least one more small group of males and females nearby. The simale tends to the young, rarely venturing out on the hunt, and relies on its mates to return with food and create a reserve.
Males and females hunt in small groups, the most common of which is a trio consisting of one male and two females going on the prowl. After they have killed and eaten an animal, they use their jaws to cut off large chunks of their meal that they can carry home, and return to the simale.
When members of a competing pride are encountered, altercations rarely begin with physical combat. Initial competitions between males and females are in the style of "sound-offs", with the oxtobaar that produces the loudest racket being the winner, and given access to the territory in question. If a pride is having difficulty hunting because of another pride on its territory, only at that point do they begin to risk their lives by fighting other oxtobaars.
When warring with each other, the ultimate goal is to defeat the rival simale. These wars are used as opportunities by young simales to prove their strength, as to avoid having to challenge their sother for control of their own pride.
Diet[]
The Oxtobaar is a carnivore, preying upon both herbivorous and carnivorous lifeforms.