Bazhe Condor

This giant bird of prey once flew the skies of the entire Hilayan subcontinent. Despite its name, the Bazhe Condor was not a true vulture, but a close relative. It was the only known species of its family, which diverged from the typical scavenger strategy of similar birds, opting instead to stalk and hunt down prey.

Some adaptations that helped it evolve into a bird capable of hunting efficiently were longer talons, a sharper beak, as well as a more aerodynamic body structure. The latter gave the Bazhe Condor the ability to fly faster than birds of similar size and even dive to catch its prey.

Its wide ranged (from the Qaqa valleys to the easternmost mountains of the Nayezahe) suggest that this cousin of the vulture found some level of evolutionary success. However, three main forces drove it from a stable population to extinction in a matter of centuries.

Firstly, there was competition from birds with similar niches. Amongst them, the Qanari Desert Falcon can be considered the main culprit of the Condor's desert subspecies disapearance. Similar birds of prey preset throughout the Hilayan subcontinent were directly competing with the Condor's secondary food sources.

This brings us the second point: a drastic decrease of the Uparzhian Goat population. This mammal had been domesticated for well over a millennium when tragedy struck: a sickness, known as Red-Eyed Death (Yaguzh Paganray) decimated cattle throughout the Uparzh empire, with the goat being particularly vulnerable to the disease. This had two major negative consequences for the condor. Since transmission of the red-eyed death is possible through blood, any animal that ate contaminated flesh was likely to be infected as well.

This included the condor, but also as the last contributing factor, it meant entire herds were killed to try and prevent further spreading of the disease across the Empire. The fact that Bazhe condors’ corpses were often found near infected herds made the general populace consider the condors a bad omen. This worsened to the point that some regions pointed to the bird as the cause and main culprit of the epidemic, and so they started being hunted by farmers and soldiers alike.

This proved to be the final nail in the coffin for a species that had diverged from a more generalist carrion diet and into a more specialized niche. There hasn't been a proper sighting of this bird in over half a century.