Probably one of the most successful video game franchises in recent years, Monster Hunter has always been a series that has captured the imagination of many people with its fantastical yet realistic creatures. From the scary Vaal Hazak to the goofy...
Most of the time, people see scavenging as the cheap and lazy way of getting a meal; however, this lifestyle is much harder than it seems. Although scavengers don't need to waste energy taking down prey, they still need to find food which can take a lot of time, and even after discovering something to eat, scavengers still have to compete with each other over carcasses.
Because of how surprisingly competitive this role is, scavengers have had to evolve multiple tools to help them find, get to, and secure meals. There are seven different points which can be split into two classes to help determine how good species are at scavenging. These are metabolisms, locomotion, detection rate, carrion availability for the encounter rate group, food processing, competition, and facilitation for the handling time faction.
Although there are many animals which have evolved to primarily become very successful scavengers, this doesn't mean that they have a perfect balance between all seven aspects. In fact, it's much more common for species to lean more towards some features rather than others. Some species, like striped hyenas, do very well at ripping open and making the most of carcasses they find, but struggle at finding them before other scavengers. Meanwhile others, such as vultures, have an easy time discovering and getting to carrion, but have more difficulty protecting and getting to the insides of the bodies they uncover.
However, one scavenger genus has found something of a balanced between encounter rate and handling time. These are the globe traveling Wyverns known as Vomvanemopan klimakapouli.
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Know worldwide as Bazelgeuse, a name which official records pronounce as Bah-Zel-Geese, though the pronunciation can vary greatly depending on where in the world you are, these True Wyverns are one of the planet's largest scavengers with a body length of 5 to 5.3 meters, a height of 1.8 and a gargantuan wingspan of 10 to 11 meters. Thanks to their massive size, these creatures have very few rivals when it comes to claiming carcasses.
Yet despite their immense bulky weight and the absence of hollow bones, these Wyverns are still capable of flight. Now it's perfectly natural to wonder how such an enormous and heavy creature can get off the ground, let alone fly. The answer to this question comes from the animals' forelimbs.
The forelimbs of Bazelgeuse are incredibly powerful, capable of lifting the goliaths off the ground; however this isn't done easily. Even though the True Wyverns are able to get airborne thanks to the length and musculature of each wing, it still takes some vigorous flapping to do so, costing a lot of energy. Because of this, these animals will typically try to jump off high places to save on energy while still taking to the air.
Although the initial take offs for these creatures can be arduous, once the Wyverns are in the skies, their way of locomotion becomes very efficient. Similarly to those of albatrosses, the wings of Bazelgeuse are long and thin, making them perfect for gliding. Unlike animals who use powered flight, gliders use warm updrafts and thermal air columns to stay in the sky and even rise higher, not wasting energy flapping their wings. Although soaring is usually slower than actively beating the forelimbs, this disadvantage doesn't really affect Bazelgeuse as their large size means they can cover more ground and move at speeds of 100 kilometers per hour, making it possible for them to complete transoceanic journeys in relatively short amounts of time. They can be found year-round on every continent except Antarctica, where the low temperatures only allow them to live on the continent's outermost islands during the summer.
