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Description

Endemic to a remote island, this large eagle species has developed unusual sexual dimorphism to reduce competition among individuals. While the males appear like regular eagles, preying on a variety of swift terrestrial or arboreal animals, the females are significantly larger and flightless, bearing spurs on their reduced wings. They are not built for speed but for strength, focussing on slow, tough prey. Usually, they keep to themselves and rarely meet, but during nesting seasons, mated pairs will exhibit unusual behaviours: cooperative hunts with the main prey being an endemic species of a semi-terrestrial crocodile. The male will harrass and distract the animal, allowing the female to kill it with minimal risk. Then both will gorge themseles on the carcass and go back to the nest to feed their single chick, repeating the process over a span of days until the carcass is either fully consumed or too decayed.

This one was inspired by the Speculative Monsterverse Bullshit series, where some people felt the need to tell me that 'Yu kno dat kayjoo arnt supposed to be realistik, rite?' on pictures of house-sized arthropods, nuke-eating terrestrial placoderms or plasma-breathing reptiles, so I got the idea of making an actually realistic redesign. No radiotrophy or weird powers, square-cube law being enacted, plausible ancestry and environment. Turns out, the result doesn't look that much like the original any more if the design is done with actual realism in mind rather than just a more grounded approach.

Description

Endemic to a remote island, this large eagle species has developed unusual sexual dimorphism to reduce competition among individuals. While the males appear like regular eagles, preying on a variety of swift terrestrial or arboreal animals, the females are significantly larger and flightless, bearing spurs on their reduced wings. They are not built for speed but for strength, focussing on slow, tough prey. Usually, they keep to themselves and rarely meet, but during nesting seasons, mated pairs will exhibit unusual behaviours: cooperative hunts with the main prey being an endemic species of a semi-terrestrial crocodile. The male will harrass and distract the animal, allowing the female to kill it with minimal risk. Then both will gorge themseles on the carcass and go back to the nest to feed their single chick, repeating the process over a span of days until the carcass is either fully consumed or too decayed.

This one was inspired by the Speculative Monsterverse Bullshit series, where some people felt the need to tell me that 'Yu kno dat kayjoo arnt supposed to be realistik, rite?' on pictures of house-sized arthropods, nuke-eating terrestrial placoderms or plasma-breathing reptiles, so I got the idea of making an actually realistic redesign. No radiotrophy or weird powers, square-cube law being enacted, plausible ancestry and environment. Turns out, the result doesn't look that much like the original any more if the design is done with actual realism in mind rather than just a more grounded approach.