Paradoxia - Spirannan Okoryx

***Velocivenator allunensis***

AKA

***Spirannan Okoryx***

In spite of the looming towers, the Spire Savannahs maintain a wide and spacious overall composition. What trees that grow far away from the sparse meandering rivers are solitary and gaunt, with tall crowns reaching dozens of feet from the ground. Cursorial animals, both predator and prey, thus have ample space to move around unimpeded.

The fastest bipedal animal anywhere on Allun makes its home here. The spirannan okoryx is an animal far flung from its closest kin, as it is the only species of its genus found in Allun, where as the rest are spread out across Kaltun and Aurideluv. It is also the largest, being fourteen meters long.

It is a nomadic, and mostly solitary hunter that is crepuscular, doing all of its hunting during the dawn to morning and dusk to evening hours. This lets it take advantage of prey that are entering into their resting periods, catching both nocturnal and diurnal animals alike unawares.

The spirannan okoryx compromises between being a dedicated sprinter and an endurance jogger. It all depends on the prey behavior in question however, as well as circumstance like fatigue and weather. Most times, a battle of attrition is enacted as the spirannan okoryx trots behind herds picking off the weak that lag behind. At full sprint, it may reach an astonishing eighty miles per hour. Sometimes they may even employ a ramming maneuver to severely stun prey.

Prey taken never usually surpasses more than half of their size. Of course, being opportunistic as all predators are, they're not above scavenging to feed themselves. That said, the spirannan okoryx has a preference for fresh meat and so hunts an overwhelming amount more than it scavenges, at a higher ratio than most other predators it shares its environment with.

This also means that it feeds once from every kill alone, even during the harsh droughts that assault the Spire Savannahs for half the year. Their kills often subsidize many smaller predators and even several large ones. The skavalurns in particular, as they trail a spirannan okoryx in the hope it leads them to a fresh carcass.

The only time when a spirannan okoryx engages in social activities is during courtship. At the start of the rains, a female would emit a pungent odor with which she coats on all manner of surfaces from trees, to rocks, and to the spires. Males that pick up the scent flock in mass, shoving and battering away competition in vicious headbutting contests, leaving the last male standing to win the female's approval. Once the deed is done, the female and male go their separate ways, with him searching for another potential mate and repeat the process all over again.

The females that are successful in drawing in suitors build a nest of dirt under a tree. Pearl umbrendrons are most preferred for the great shade they provide. A generous clutch could contain up to five eggs each, with several additional ones if the mother is especially fit. Gestation is remarkably fast, at only four months, and all the while she guards her treasured offspring fiercely.

The young hatch precocious and capable of running, already able to feed themselves, though will not become independent for another two months, in which time they will grow from one and a half foot tall hatchlings to seven foot tall ravenous hunters.

Sexual maturity is reached rather late in their lives. With only a little over four decades being the maximum lifespan, sexual maturity occurs at fifteen to sixteen years old after skeletal maturity, which completes at twelve or fourteen.