Daemon Fauna – Murder Crows
[Read the previous entry]
2102.11.3
Simulation HK00247
Corvus ferox, aka “Murder Crow”
At first I ignored the complaints my work was receiving, dismissing them as the words of foolish bureaucrats turned armchair biologists. Eventually some of my colleagues pointed out the potential for the Dune Hopper to overly thrive with the modifications I’ve given it, and the fallacy of relying on human predation and husbandry to control the population. I’d always planned on creating a full food web with checks and balances on all my proposed fauna, but if overpopulation is the main worry holding execution back, then I have an easy solution.
Introducing Corvus ferox, pack hunting carnivores and natural predators to D. gigas. Modeled partially after the prehistoric velociraptor, using the genome of the Corvidae and Struthio genera, they stand about a meter tall and up to two meters long. C. ferox are flightless and rely mainly on their beaks and claws to bring down prey. Hunting packs normally consist of a single male and several females.
The Murder Crows are very clever predators, utilizing hunting tactics anciently seen in Canis lupus and Panthera leo. To anyone doubting the capability of flightless birds as primary predators, there are some pre-War films I’ve downloaded to show them just how fearsome these can be.
That should shut up any problems about animal overpopulation.
Dr. Havva Koçak
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2103.1.19
While I started C. ferox mostly as a joke and an opportunity to vent, it’s surprisingly robust and stable, handily balancing with D. gigas in VB_001. I shall have to explore this further, and likely modify some of the more… dramatic elements I included.
HK
[art by Ethan Kocak of Black MudPuppy]
