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Description

Draconology © VikasRao

Please do not copy, redistribute, reference, trace, reuse, alter or modify for your own use without my prior permission, thank you!

One thing I feel really kills the believability of dragons in most (pretty much all) works of fantasy is that they're nearly unkillable--nothing except another dragon or magic or some special weapon can actually kill one. Of course this just isn't how the natural world works. An apex predator is not some invincible beast, it's just another animal that sits at the top of the food chain simply because nothing hunts it; it doesn't mean that it never gets effed up. Big cats get their asses handed to them by their own prey on numerous occasions, and seemingly invincible animals like elephants can be killed by a snake etc.

So what kind of animal could actually kill a giant dragon? Personally, I'd say an elephant. Not only are they big, hilariously strong and intelligent, but they can also go berserk. For those unaware, bull elephants periodically enter a state called musth, when their testosterone levels sky rocket and even captive, docile individuals turn psycho and go on a rampage, trampling literally anything & anyone in their path (even their own kind). Now bulls of all 3 modern elephant species enter this state, so it's likely that their relatives did too, and I figured if there's any animal that could solo a giant dragon, it would be a member of this group.

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After a brutal winter in northernmost North America, a western mountain devil (Magnadrakon tyrannus), perhaps out of sheer desperation, attacked what seemed like an easy target, a northern mammoth (Mammuthus septentrionalis) calf that had become separated from its herd. This however, proved to be a fatal error. No sooner had it begun to dive towards the calf did a massive bull mammoth, enraged by musth, charge towards the dragon. Moving too fast to evade it, the dragon unleashed a torrent of flame, scorching the mammoth as well as the ground, but crash landing in the process. As the calf ran to safety, the bull continued charging the fire-breathing dragon, ramming it with its tusks and breaking its wing; the latter's talons being insufficient to incapacitate the berserk beast, and its jaws too narrow to effectively bite down on any part of its body. With a final trumpet, the mammoth reared up and trampled the downed dragon, its 10-ton bulk crushing the giant reptile.

Although badly burnt, its meter-thick coat of dense fur has protected it well against the flames, and the snow, slush, and mud will help soothe its burns, and its hormone-enraged state will further help dull the pain until then.

The commotion has alerted the herd, which finally manage to locate the lost calf, which in turn rushes towards its family. Of course the mammoths weren't the only ones attracted to the sounds of the battle. A pair of plains waheelas (Osteoboros pachygnathus rufus) had been trailing the dragon since earlier in the hopes of obtaining a meal. Although the outcome of the dragon's hunt was, unexpected, needless to say, the dragon did not disappoint, and they will now feast on dragon bones.

The western mountain devil , with a wingspan of 13.5-15 m and weighing nearly 300 kg, is among the largest dragons, and the largest dragon in the western hemisphere. Being lankier than its Eurasian relative, this species is mainly adapted to hunting fast, medium-sized game such as deer, camelids, and horses, or kleptoparasitising the kills of predators such as big cats and machairodontines. This individual was a subadult, and its inexperience caused it to starve for much of the winter, and in desperation, attacked a prey item that it was grossly ill-equipped to handle at this life stage. Needless to say, it won't be doing much growing anymore.

The northern mammoth is a hybrid species, an extreme cold-adapted descendant of woolly and relict populations of steppe mammoths that appeared during the Late Pleistocene in Eastern Asia, when dwindling food resources forced both species into proximity. Although the woolly mammoth was better adapted to the cold, the steppe mammoth was able to traverse longer distances on account of its larger size, which also proved useful against predators. The northern mammoth eventually outcompeted its ancestors sometime between the end of the Last Glacial Maximum and the beginning of the Younger Dryas in Eurasia and North America. It's dense fur and even denser fat stores, courtesy of the woolly mammoth, allowed it to survive the harshest winters, and its steppe mammoth-like size allowed it to cover longer distances and even colonize several islands in search of food, and thereby replace its ancestors by the early Holocene.

The plains waheela is a subspecies of the northern waheela, a borophagine canid (bone-crushing dog) native to much of northern North America, the other subspecies being the slightly larger cave waheela (O. rufus spelaeus). At 1.5 m long & weighing 100-120 kg, it is the size of a small lion, with a similarly robust yet lean build and a powerful, hyena-like skull. Its long legs allow it to easily cross snow drifts, a keen sense of smell helps in locating carcasses buried under snow, and its jaws, nearly twice as powerful as that of a spotted hyena's, allows it to make quick work of everything from frozen meat to the largest bones. Unlike wolves, they are largely solitary, though O. rufus rufus will sometimes hunt in pairs. Much like the unrelated hyenas, they can (and will) eat every part of a carcass, but have a particular preference for the head. This is hardly surprising as the brain is an extremely calorie-rich organ, and on many occasions, waheelas will eat the head first, skull and all, and only parts of the rest, before stashing the now headless carcass away. This is mainly because they're among the few predators in their range able to actually process bone, especially of megafauna. Although gray wolves, dire wolves, and bears can do so as well, the canids cannot crack large bones, and bears generally avoid carcasses that are mostly skeleton with little or no meat. This particular niche allows them to coexist rather well with dragons and scimitar cats, both of which only eat soft tissues. Although not particularly fast, and lacking the stamina of their canine cousins, their hyena-like attributes have allowed them to exploit a minimally competitive ecological niche. Moreover, they are known to associate with their canine cousins on several occasions. The wolves benefit from the waheela's powerful jaws, which can dispatch large prey faster and grant access to every part of the carcass, and the waheela benefits from the wolves' speed and stamina.

World of Draconology

Description

Draconology © VikasRao

Please do not copy, redistribute, reference, trace, reuse, alter or modify for your own use without my prior permission, thank you!

One thing I feel really kills the believability of dragons in most (pretty much all) works of fantasy is that they're nearly unkillable--nothing except another dragon or magic or some special weapon can actually kill one. Of course this just isn't how the natural world works. An apex predator is not some invincible beast, it's just another animal that sits at the top of the food chain simply because nothing hunts it; it doesn't mean that it never gets effed up. Big cats get their asses handed to them by their own prey on numerous occasions, and seemingly invincible animals like elephants can be killed by a snake etc.

So what kind of animal could actually kill a giant dragon? Personally, I'd say an elephant. Not only are they big, hilariously strong and intelligent, but they can also go berserk. For those unaware, bull elephants periodically enter a state called musth, when their testosterone levels sky rocket and even captive, docile individuals turn psycho and go on a rampage, trampling literally anything & anyone in their path (even their own kind). Now bulls of all 3 modern elephant species enter this state, so it's likely that their relatives did too, and I figured if there's any animal that could solo a giant dragon, it would be a member of this group.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

After a brutal winter in northernmost North America, a western mountain devil (Magnadrakon tyrannus), perhaps out of sheer desperation, attacked what seemed like an easy target, a northern mammoth (Mammuthus septentrionalis) calf that had become separated from its herd. This however, proved to be a fatal error. No sooner had it begun to dive towards the calf did a massive bull mammoth, enraged by musth, charge towards the dragon. Moving too fast to evade it, the dragon unleashed a torrent of flame, scorching the mammoth as well as the ground, but crash landing in the process. As the calf ran to safety, the bull continued charging the fire-breathing dragon, ramming it with its tusks and breaking its wing; the latter's talons being insufficient to incapacitate the berserk beast, and its jaws too narrow to effectively bite down on any part of its body. With a final trumpet, the mammoth reared up and trampled the downed dragon, its 10-ton bulk crushing the giant reptile.

Although badly burnt, its meter-thick coat of dense fur has protected it well against the flames, and the snow, slush, and mud will help soothe its burns, and its hormone-enraged state will further help dull the pain until then.

The commotion has alerted the herd, which finally manage to locate the lost calf, which in turn rushes towards its family. Of course the mammoths weren't the only ones attracted to the sounds of the battle. A pair of plains waheelas (Osteoboros pachygnathus rufus) had been trailing the dragon since earlier in the hopes of obtaining a meal. Although the outcome of the dragon's hunt was, unexpected, needless to say, the dragon did not disappoint, and they will now feast on dragon bones.

The western mountain devil , with a wingspan of 13.5-15 m and weighing nearly 300 kg, is among the largest dragons, and the largest dragon in the western hemisphere. Being lankier than its Eurasian relative, this species is mainly adapted to hunting fast, medium-sized game such as deer, camelids, and horses, or kleptoparasitising the kills of predators such as big cats and machairodontines. This individual was a subadult, and its inexperience caused it to starve for much of the winter, and in desperation, attacked a prey item that it was grossly ill-equipped to handle at this life stage. Needless to say, it won't be doing much growing anymore.

The northern mammoth is a hybrid species, an extreme cold-adapted descendant of woolly and relict populations of steppe mammoths that appeared during the Late Pleistocene in Eastern Asia, when dwindling food resources forced both species into proximity. Although the woolly mammoth was better adapted to the cold, the steppe mammoth was able to traverse longer distances on account of its larger size, which also proved useful against predators. The northern mammoth eventually outcompeted its ancestors sometime between the end of the Last Glacial Maximum and the beginning of the Younger Dryas in Eurasia and North America. It's dense fur and even denser fat stores, courtesy of the woolly mammoth, allowed it to survive the harshest winters, and its steppe mammoth-like size allowed it to cover longer distances and even colonize several islands in search of food, and thereby replace its ancestors by the early Holocene.

The plains waheela is a subspecies of the northern waheela, a borophagine canid (bone-crushing dog) native to much of northern North America, the other subspecies being the slightly larger cave waheela (O. rufus spelaeus). At 1.5 m long & weighing 100-120 kg, it is the size of a small lion, with a similarly robust yet lean build and a powerful, hyena-like skull. Its long legs allow it to easily cross snow drifts, a keen sense of smell helps in locating carcasses buried under snow, and its jaws, nearly twice as powerful as that of a spotted hyena's, allows it to make quick work of everything from frozen meat to the largest bones. Unlike wolves, they are largely solitary, though O. rufus rufus will sometimes hunt in pairs. Much like the unrelated hyenas, they can (and will) eat every part of a carcass, but have a particular preference for the head. This is hardly surprising as the brain is an extremely calorie-rich organ, and on many occasions, waheelas will eat the head first, skull and all, and only parts of the rest, before stashing the now headless carcass away. This is mainly because they're among the few predators in their range able to actually process bone, especially of megafauna. Although gray wolves, dire wolves, and bears can do so as well, the canids cannot crack large bones, and bears generally avoid carcasses that are mostly skeleton with little or no meat. This particular niche allows them to coexist rather well with dragons and scimitar cats, both of which only eat soft tissues. Although not particularly fast, and lacking the stamina of their canine cousins, their hyena-like attributes have allowed them to exploit a minimally competitive ecological niche. Moreover, they are known to associate with their canine cousins on several occasions. The wolves benefit from the waheela's powerful jaws, which can dispatch large prey faster and grant access to every part of the carcass, and the waheela benefits from the wolves' speed and stamina.

World of Draconology