Rihm Shriekers - Please Comment!


Appearance


Rihm Shriekers are large bats that typically reach lengths of eight to twelve feet in length when full grown. Their fur colors range throughout blue, white, grey and occasionally gold. Normally the amount of fur on their bodies would be too heavy to allow for sustained flight, the bats overcome this by inflating each individual hair with small amount helium before takeoff. The helium is stored within an extra pair of ‘lungs’ if either of these lungs is punctured or significantly damaged flight becomes impossible. In addition, they have some of the strongest flight muscles of any airborne creature still living. They also have powerful grasping appendages on their wings and extremely sharp talons for grabbing prey from mid-air. Rihm Shriekers are called such because of the immensely high intensity sound that they release in order to echolocate and/or stun their prey.


Habitat


The northern wastes of Rihm are extremely cold and hostile to life. Many enormous ice caverns form in the highest regions. It is surprisingly flat however, except for the occasional mountain. It is geothermically active beneath the ground, keeping most water sources liquid and warm. Steam vents can be found in many areas and most creatures congregates in these areas.


Life, Hierarchy and Breeding


Rihm Shriekers are born in groups of two to three, immediately after birth they climb to the ceiling of the cave and begin absorbing helium from the air, this process can take several years to complete. During this time each of the pups is fed by the females present, which are in turn brought food by the males, who do most of the hunting. After the helium absorption process most pups have grown close to three feet long.

Males will leave the nest at this point and attempt to claim a territory outside the nest. Few succeed; young males are usually killed and eaten by mature males shortly after leaving the cave. If they succeed in finding and claiming a territory, their metabolism explodes and they will grow at an exponentially increased rate. Within a year they reach lengths of six to eight feet and are usually able to defend themselves from attacks by other males. Territory disputes are common and any male which kills and eat a smaller male immediately claims its territory. These territories often become so large that it is impossible to patrol it and smaller males will sometimes hide within growing to a size large enough to challenge the original owner. By the end of their third year surviving males will have reached or exceeded twelve feet in length. At this point males will migrate back to a nearby nest or ‘harem’ and breed with multiple females. Breeding is a time of fierce competition and males are often killed by other males or by the females within the cave who only allow the strongest males to sire offspring.

Females stay in the nest after the helium absorption process, sparring with each other for positions of power amongst the harem’s members. The largest female is referred to as the matriarch; it can exceed twenty feet in length and is bigger than most males ever become outside the nest, it also boasts the loudest screech of any members of its species often reaching a decibel capable of shattering the human ear. Males who attempt to breed with the matriarch are usually killed as she is the most ill-tempered, violent and powerful female in any harem, having reached her position through years of vicious fighting. Although males have the potential to exceed matriarchs in size and power, few ever do because of the territory competition outside the nest.


Diet


Rihm Shriekers feed mostly on migrating birds and occasionally on smaller members of their own species, after males kill prey they will eat their fill and bring the rest back to their native harem for the females to fight over. Only the strongest and healthiest members of this species ever survive.
In order to hunt Rihm Shriekers will fly high into the sky and screech at full capacity listening for return echoes. If any animals are found within their air space the creature will dive bomb it, they are so accurate that they are usually able to swallow their prey whole. If the echo-location indicates a creature large enough to challenge them they will confront it directly. They often use their screech to stun enemies and then rapidly close the gap and attack while it is weak. This strategy is usually successful, although there are some creatures that have developed a resistance to this. All but the most tenacious of Shriekers are easy prey for land predators if they are injured to the point that they can no longer fly.

Wow, these sound pretty fascinating!

Why wouldn't their metabolism "explode" right after they leave to try and increase in size as soon as possible and increase their chances of survival?

Well, the way it is in my head, if they don't manage to claim their own territory they won't be able to eat enough to grow because the larger Shrieker will either kill the smaller one or prevent it from eating enough, therefore causing starvation... So the metabolism explosion is naturally delayed in order to give them the best chance of survival. Does that make sense?

That makes perfect sense.

So maybe their metabolism is triggered by how much food they eat?

I think so, since up to a certain point in their life their diet is very steady I think having a large influx of food would make sense as a trigger for increased metabolism.

That's cool, these sound really interesting...they remind me of dragons almost.

Thank you. I'm glad you like them.

I think it's interesting that you liken them to Dragons, my world is split into Seven Dimensions, Shriekers are one of the largest airborne predators in A'el, and Dragons are the largest in Tira with Wyverns being a close second. I'm honestly not sure that a Shrieker would pose a significant challenge to a Dragon or Wyvern though... *ponders* You have given me something more to think about, which is always good.

Good! Glad to help. Yeah, I think the territories and stuff made me think of dragons (it sounded similar to the depiction in Dragons, a Fantasy Made Real, a history channel presentation if I remember correctly.

It sounds like a shrieker might pose a threat to a dragon if he were above it...*ponders*...A hard strike to the head/eyes could probably render a dragon dead or nearly so.

*nods* I believe I've heard of that before, I think I tried to get my Aunt to record it some time ago but she forgot. I was never able to see it. XD

*nods* The largest Dragons can be up to 60 feet long though. And your really pushing it with Rihm Shriekers if you take them above 22 feet. That said, having the element of surprise just may do it, and such an attack would no doubt knock the Dragon to the ground causing it to sustain injuries... *is getting lots of ideas* Hehe.

Aw, that's too bad. Maybe you could get it from the library?

Nice, yeah that's what I was thinking, something so big and heavy would likely die from a big fall.
Maybe you could have a "sweet spot" where if the shrieker strikes it will knock out or stun the dragon? I'm thinking those sharp talons could do serious damage at high velocity...

Wow, TWHS, these are incredibly developed! High five for thinking them through so thoroughly! [cough] A lot more thoroughly than I usually do... [/cough] I especially like the part about the helium absorption to assist their flight, because right before I read that I was wondering how their wings could support their weight.

Thank you very much! I'm glad you like them!

As soon as I put them in an icy environment I knew I would need some method to keep them warm which would still allow for flight. The helium was the first thing I came up with.

Ahh. Clever.

These are cool creatures. What animals do they eat, in addition to birds and their own kind?

Awesome creatures. What kinds of animals eat them?

Not entirely sure on that yet.. XD