Carakiller

The **carakiller** (*Phourosfalco communus*) is a giant terror bird-like polyborine falconid that originally did not exist, but has since been created by SciiFii and introduced to the grasslands of Chile, Argentina, and Peru to help boost biodiversity. It was created to be a more accurate version of the fictionalized carakillers from The Future is Wild documentary, from which the real carakiller is based off of. The closest living relative of the carakiller is the mountain caracara, which was probably used as a base animal by SciiFii when creating real life carakillers. The carakiller is the swiftest hunter of the South American grasslands, usually running around 39.75 miles per hour (64 kilometers per hour). The wings of the carakiller are no longer used for flying, but they are still muscular and aerodynamic. The bird's flightless wings act as stabilizers, balancing the carakiller when it runs at full tilt, and helping it to turn corners quickly. The carakiller's body is covered in feathers for insulation, shaggy on the back and legs, and fine on the chest. Its neck is bare, presenting smooth surface when the bird is eating (feathers would soon become sticky with the flesh and blood of prey). Carakillers live and hunt in loose groups, stalking across the grassland in open formation, looking for the telltale movements of prey, like a troop of South American grassland-dwelling monkeys such as babookaris. At about 6.875 feet (2.1 meters) tall, the carakiller can easily see its prey over long distances. When prey, such as a troop of babookaris, is spotted, the carakillers signal silently to one another, raising and lowering colorful, peafowl-like plumes on the backs of their heads. The carakillers begin to close in on their targets. If the selected prey is a babookari troop, the monkeys will scatter. The carakillers can single out one of the babookaris and swiftly run it down, with some carakillers splitting off from the main group to catch it. A babookari troop can outmaneuver a single carakiller, so carakillers have to hunt in groups. Some stalk around the prey, unseen in the long grass, and wait. Using their colorful head plumes as signals to each other, the rest of the pack drive the monkeys into the trap. Most of the troop will escape, but one or two will be caught. At times, carakillers employ a different hunting strategy, using the frequent bushfires to their advantage. As a fire races across the savannah, the animals of the grasslands run for their lives. Carakillers can do this easily, but other animals are not so swift. The birds run ahead of the flames, snapping up small mammals, snakes and lizards as they are flushed from their hiding places. Other birds walk behind the line of fire, picking at the charred corpses left there. In this respect, carakillers are very similar to the marabou stork of the African swamps and grasslands. Carakillers lay their eggs on the ground communally during the wet season, when fires are less frequent. Parents take turns looking after the eggs while the other hunts. They will sometimes find that her nest is being raided by something like a grassland rattleback. Normally, most egg thieves are killed right on the spot by a carakiller mother, but the bird of prey's powerful beak is useless against a grassland rattleback's armor and no amount of scratching and clawing will pry the rattleback loose from its "wedged into the ground" defense position. The conservation status of the carakiller is **Vulnerable** due to some habitat loss and historic poaching, however, thanks to conservationists, the carakillers have made a comeback.