Savage gravedigger (SciiFii)

The savage gravedigger (Decipulaformus atrox), also known simply as the savage, is a species of large, mostly-quadrupedal bird with a gray, black, and white plumage and a short tail. The savage gravedigger originally did not exist, but has since been created by SciiFii and introduced throughout the cold forests, opej woodlands, and mountainous regions across North America to help boost biodiversity. The savage gravedigger is one of the only living members of the Decipulaforminae subfamily, which are most closely related to a widespread subfamily Carduelinae, and is the only living non-sapient member of its family. The savage gravedigger is the largest species of gravedigger, growing to be about 1.7 meters (5.9 feet) long and weighing about 81.6 kilograms (180 lbs) on average. The plumage is very thick and the soles of the feet are completely feathered, while the tail feathers are carried higher than in others, perhaps to avoid them being covered with ice. With massive crushing jaws, huge claws and a muscular build, the most notable trait of the savage gravedigger, D. atrox, is that it has lost the spark of sapience that characterized its ancestors. Forged in some of the coldest and harshest habitable environments in its more northern range, the savage gravedigger has a brain that is reduced in size and complexity in order to reduce its calorie requirements. Another extreme adaptation which this species has adapted is some capacity for hibernation; to survive prolonged food shortage they may retire to a den for weeks at a time, ceasing to eat and falling into a state of torpor where their metabolism slows much like a bear’s. They are not well-suited to this emergency survival measure, however, and a significant number of younger and older individuals in the northern parts of the species' range forced into this torpor starve to death before they re-awaken. The savage gravediggers are extremely hostile among themselves and the least social of any species, for they require large territories to sustain themselves on the prey. Functionally animalistic and non-sapient, they have a chimpanzee-level cognitive ability yet their almost total lack of sociability means they have very little capacity for empathy. They have almost no culture at all, and all social interaction is now limited to brief mating, which is itself an aggressive affair without much tenderness, and the two year period where young are dependant on their mother. The latter is the only time that savage gravediggers live together and the singular circumstance where they still must have some capacity for caring for others. Females defend their own young fiercely from all threats as long as they retain a light tan juvenile coat, but don't extend their tolerance to any unrelated offspring which will be unceremoniously killed and fed to her own. The conservation status of the savage gravedigger is Vulnerable due to some habitat loss and historic poaching, however, thanks to the conservationists, the savage gravedigger is a protected species.
Category:Animals
Category:Species
Category:SciiFii