Urushai

Disclaimer: The Urushai is a fictional animal from Keenan Taylor's Tales of Kaimere.

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Earth Ancestor: Phorusrhacinae sp.

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Aves

Order: Cariamiformes

Family: Phorusrhacidae

Genus: Unknown

Species: Unknown

### Description

  Most common and largest of the Kaimeran phorusrhacid is the fireback, terror bird of the mainland forests.

   Weighing in at nearly a thousand pounds and a hip height of over six feet or two meters, this is the largest phorusrhacid of Earth or Kaimere. They are generalist hunters, but prefer slower armored game.

 While they do contend with young zentaur and the black cockatrice, and their range often encroaches on these other two, they niche partition by sticking to the lowland forests and wetlands, while young restaurant are more common in titan gardens and the black cockatrice in prefers uneven highlands. Firebacks tend to dominate the other two species in direct confrontations, and are more common in their respective niches than either are in the wetlands and lowland forests, but they still are most common here.

   These birds live in mated pairs and maintain contact with neighboring couples, but generally hunt alone. Like cockatrices, they will assemble in larger groups to mob and tackle larger game, both at the height of the monsoon season as megafauna are disrupted and disoriented, and at the height of the dry season when smaller game has been locally hunted to endangerment and bringing down tougher giants becomes a necessity. While their preferred game are slower armored prey like sloths and drakes between a thousand pounds and two tons, they can work together to bring down proboscideans, young titans, and even hukolgur sloths under certain circumstances.

 Another name for the fireback is surgeon bird for their particularly brutal method of killing. They are intelligent animals and rather than try to pierce the armor of their preferred game, they know the vulnerable places and target these with rapid precision. Without going into details more graphic than this format will permit, they employ their beak not as a pick or hatchet, but a hook, latching into a soft part of the prey and yanking it apart until the prey dies of shock and blood loss. They are capable of considerable bursts of speed, but generally prefer pinning slower armored prey with their long legs and sickle claws before employing the beak for a quick and graphic kill.

### Habitat

Lowland forests and wetlands of Arvel and west Ni'Khar.

### Phylogeny

The Urushai is a close cousin of the Rohakundi, with a common ancestor being harvested from South America 13.7mya.

### Human Relations

While many have tried to tame these formidable birds, thus far no attempts have been successful outside of a few folktales from the Age of Witches. They are aggressive and territorial, and while juveniles are tame and will readily follow handlers, adults will view any person other than their handler as food, and the first time the handler disappoints them, they will attack. Being clever, firebacks that were raised by people often know how to open doors and where food stores and children are kept. It is not unheard of for them to learn that humans are a viable food source, especially if they were raised by handlers, and many Arvelith horror stories center around an escaped pet which came back a year later with a mate and a dozen companions that turn entire villages into a grotesque arena of gore.