Viture

Vulture-hawk-vipers. These birds of prey are one of the few species that regularly hunt even the top land predators, such as humans. Vitures dive-bomb their prey, aiming to bite their prey at least once. Their bite carries a mix of deadly neurotoxic and hemotoxic poisons; once injected into the bloodstream, the venom kills its target in anywhere from two to ten minutes. Once their target has been bitten, Vitures hover around it until it dies. Then they swoop down and feed upon it.

Vitures vary between very stupid and surprisingly cunning. On one hand, Vitures have been known to attack oddly wind-blown trees and simple automatons as if they were prey, but on the other hand Vitures usually dive-bomb their prey from behind, where the prey will not notice them coming.

Vitures occasionally travel in hunting packs, especially in the first stages of a food shortage, though these packs tend to be small (and are almost always just 2 Vitures during their mating season). These packs keep large distances from each other, staying just within sight. When one Viture spots prey, it signals the others (how?), and all of them congregate. Then they assail their prey. If a Viture is slain, the others usually stop attacking whatever their prey had been, and feast upon their fallen comerade. However, if multiple Vitures are slain, or the packs' prey's carcass is approached, they will mercilessly assail the intruder, almost always poisoning and slaying the attacker.

Vitures were originally made by a king who wanted to kill his enemies with some form of altered falcon. Starting with a falcon base, he forced mutations to add viper and vulture -like characteristics. Unfortunately, Vitures proved extremely difficult to domesticate, as they kept killing even the most careful handlers, and very few antidotes for their poison have been found.

Vitures are naturally preyed upon by juvenile Giant Spiders, which (like most simpler life-forms) are immune to Viture Venom. Vitures will also eat other dead vitures, and occasionally Vitures take to hunting each other - as Vitures are not immune to their own venom. Vitures are especially prone to hunting each other during food shortages and during (other Vitures of the same gender only) mating season.