#basically to knock eagles out of the sky
a selection of the megafaunal birds and rodents endemic to the Red Rock archipelago, homeland of the sole remaining archin (giant sapient bees lol) people.
the descendents of seabirds and castaway rats fill most vertebrate niches, with a few unique families developing here seen nowhere else. two of these translate to “groundbirds” and “hoofrats”, the former being flightless birds with vestigial/absent wings, the latter being large rodents who have developed hooves.
the biggest examples are shown here. descriptions under the cut
(youll notice most of the names here seem very literal- archin language is a visual sign language and thus the unique signs for specific words are either untranslatable into phonetic languages or must be translated literally like such)
left to right:
‘assassin moundbuilder’: large solitary ambush predator groundbirds who kick prey to death with their enlongated middle claws. males build and compete over mounds which females lay their eggs in. there are a few (much smaller) moundbuilder species.
‘birdmouth’:midsized predatory hoofrats whose incisors have taken on a self-sharpening, beaklike shape to better tear open the flesh of its prey. they live in colonies and show great behavioral plasticity depending on the environment- some clans will hunt alone or in loose groups for small prey, some are specialists of large animals.
’nightwalker’:this one isnt a groundbird at all but a species of heron and a relatively recent addition to the ecosystem. they are nocturnal (likely to minimize competition with comparable birds, mostly diurnal) and hunt both on land and in water, as well as scavenge. they are one of the more dangerous species to archin with the least adaptive fear of their guns, and will occasionally prey on them
middle: archin (and mrinitialman default human silhouette) for reference.
‘reinbird’ ‘reined shrieker’: a mid-large omnivorous groundbird that has been widely domesticated as mounts for archin. domestic populations have very long wattles regardless of sex, which may be used or augmented as reins for a rider.
‘twilight shrieker’: a very large, mostly frugivorous groundbird closely related to the reinbird. its named for its resemblance to an evening sky (sunset on one end, starry in the others) and the haunting territorial calls of the male.
‘mudleg rat’ the smallest hoofrat, this is an omnivore that fills a similar niche to pigs, and will opportunistically eat almost anything. these are occasionally kept as livestock.
‘maned leaper’: a group of mid-sized highly cursorial hoofrats, who fill a very similar niche to deer. they are a favored prey of birdmouths, and will leap and kick high in the air while fleeing to confuse predators
‘the ground shakes’: a massive herbivorous hoofrat who could be considered somewhat analogous to a hippo. while they are exclusive herbivores, they are very aggressive and can do tremendous damage to archin settlements with their mere presence. a naming taboo has developed as a result- there is no specific sign for this animal and it is referred to in the abstract (in hopes of not attracting them). ‘the ground shakes’ is a common phrase, or occasionally the slightly more specific ‘giant’.
