Costal Wyvern Draco

Coastal wyverns, known among fishermen as skreechers, are a type of winged dragons that live near seas. Ember, a female screacher, was my father's companion and she was the one that gave me this will to travel and lust for knowledge.

Basic Information

Anatomy

Screechers are slender winged reptiles possessing small and smooth scales. They have four long limbs connected by leathery wings and on their head is one narrow horn in the shape of an inverted dorsal fin of a shark. Calling it a horn isn't accurate since it has two thin slits at the front and actually composes the nasal cavity of these creatures. The tip of their fore-limbs end in a claw and four finger like appendages connected by a membrane of skin that form the tip of their wins and enable the screechers to make sharp and precise movements in the air.

by Alkos Hill

Genetics and Reproduction

Male coastal wyverns go in search of females on a yearly basis. When the mating season begins, the males leave their nest and look for another one hoping a female will want to mate. To seduce a female, males will sing a song composed by whistle noises and rattle sounds that they make via their horn and their wings respectively. Then, when a female accepts to mate, the couple will spend a month together and while the female is growing the eggs, the male will provide food for both of them. Finally, after a month, the female will lay her eggs in a pre-dug hole of a sand beach with a depth of approximately one meter. These eggs come in clutches of up to twenty eggs

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Growth Rate & Stages

Two to three moths after the eggs are laid, they are ready to hatch. A screecher hatch-ling isn't larger than small cat and doesn't posses large enough wings or the enough amount of muscle to fly. The first five months of their life are thus spent in the nearby waters where their wings serve as fins. The reason why the horn is shaped like a inverted dorsal fin is to enable the young wyverns to breath when emerging while remaining under water. The male will then take the role of their mentor and protector since maritime predators are the number one cause of death of this species. And most of these deaths take place in this aquatic stage. The father will teach them how to swim, catch fish and climb cliffs but they will only learn to fly with their mother once they reach a length of about one meter and a half which takes at least four months to reach. Only four or five hatch lings will survive till that stage. But once they learn how to fly, it is nearly impossible to catch them. It will then only take two years before they are fully grown and able to mate. A fully grown screecher has a length of about 6 meters.

Ecology and Habitats

Coastal wyverns live near large bodies of water like seas and oceans in warm climates. They sleep and rest by hanging on the sides of tall rocky cliffs.

Dietary Needs and Habits

After the aquatic stage, the coastal wyvern still eats fish when nothing else is available but it's main diet consists of medium sized birds like seagulls.

Additional Information

Social Structure

Like most social wyvern dragons, the screechers are part of a matriarchy, where the oldest female is the leader of the flock, she decides when it is time to hunt, to rest and if it is time to mate. Most flocks consist of an equal number of males and females, with a size can go up to fifty individuals in one fllock.

Domestication

It is very rare to hear of wyverns being domesticated, and there are even fewer cases of them when it the case of a screecher. The only times coastal wyverns were domesticated, the creature was red-scaled. The red coastal wyverns being abandoned by their parents they are the only young sreechers humans can approach with near absolute safety. My father domesticated one a long time ago. She was being attacked by some squid when he intervened. He brought her home and took a liking to her. He called her Ember because of her colouring and taught her how to fly and hunt. She even let him ride her ! These cases are very rare but there is one time I saw something I never would have believed if someone would have told me : far at sea, there is an island sailors call Red-Nest Isle, also known by the inhabitants as Nurohm, where a small town was able to domesticate a whole flock of red wyverns. It seems red wyverns are only accepted by others like them, and they seem to have a more gentler approach to humans.

Scientific Name

Coastal Wyvern

Origin/Ancestry

Draco

Lifespan

60 years

Average Weight

700 kg

Average Length

6 m

Body Tint, Colouring and Marking

Most screechers are in the colour range of greyish blues and greens but some tend to be a bit more purple. They have darker coloured striped patterns along the back of their wings and spine but their underside is often lighter and tend to white or beige tints. The rarest colour of coastal wyverns is red. the reason why they are rare is first because they are more easily spotted by predators, but also because the other, more blue-coloured, wyverns reject them.