Creature:King of Fliers

The King of Fliers is the largest recorded organism ever to fly through Vuunega's atmosphere.

Statistics
Nicknames: KoF, Kof, DFA, Death From Above, Vuunegan Coatl Homeplanet: Vuunega Species Type: Warm-blooded Aerial Omnicetid Lifestyle: Antisocial Predator Hunt/Forage Success Rate: 100% Hunt (72% success rate) Armor: Unspecified Defenses: Unspecified Weapons: Unspecified Tools: King of Fliers will move things such as their eggs around using their beaks. Technically, the taloned feet can also be used for equally-minimal manipulation. Method of Eating: Bring prey down to incapacitation or death first. Bite sections of the flesh with the beak and pull off pieces of flesh to swallow. Food passes into esophagus until it reaches stomach, where digestion begins. Stomach breaks down food into a slurry and allows it to pass through "vent gut", an organ filled with beneficial bacteria-equivalents that kill most bacteria- and virus-equivalents that can become deadly once in the KoF bloodstream. Vent gut passes remains of food into the whirling intestines, which extracts nutrients from the food and absorbs it into the bloodstream. Wasted remnants are excreted out of the cloaca on the opposite end of the digestive tract. Reproductive Rate: Sexual maturity is reached after 9 years. Reproduce only during the windy spring months, so that their chicks can be ready for their first flight lessons around the time that spring rolls around again. Gestation: 3.7 months then lays eggs -- eggs hatch after another 7 months of development. Number of Offspring: 1-6 eggs per clutch Offspring Survival Rate (before age of maturity): 45% -- Because of their low clutch birth rate and how long it takes the eggs to hatch after being laid, the King of Fliers are adamant broodmothers, and will attempt to protect their nests as much as possible. Even so, 7 months is a long time to sit on and protect a clutch of eggs, and predators will come around many times during this time period. Because of this, King of Fliers mate for life and take turns every other year watching the egg clutches. The one watching the brood that year will be fed food by the other parent, and they will only get up to defecate away from their nest when the other parent is around, who will watch the nest in their absence. Most juveniles that don't survive will die within their first year of being without their parents' protective wings being held over them, figuratively.

Trivia

 * The King of Fliers was originally created when the Creature Editor was still the only program of Spore that had been released. At that time, the King of Fliers had nearly maxed stats; however, the way parts worked when increasing skills was changed before the game's final release.