Gondwana Carakiller

The Gondwana Carakiller is a large falconoid that inhabits the grasslands of Gondwana. The Gondwana Carakiller is more closely related to caracaras than to other falcons, specifically the mountain caracara on Earth.

The Gondwana Carakiller has muscular and aerodynamic feathers that act like stabilizers, balancing the carakiller when it runs at full tilt, and helping it to turn corners quickly and has a claw on the tip, like all falconoids. The carakiller's body is covered in feathers for insulation, shaggy on the back and legs, and fine on the chest. Its neck and wings are bare, presenting smooth surface when the bird is eating (feathers would soon become sticky with the flesh and blood of prey). Gondwana 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 babookaris. At about 7 to 10 feet (over 2 to 3 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 on Earth. 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. Peter Summers, the guy who discovered the Gondwana Carakiller and a few other animals, used to watch the British 2002 documentary The Future is Wild and said that he named it the Carakiller after the animal from the show because it acted and looked exactly like the one from the show.