Aepyornis: The Ultimate Elephant Bird

[Ctron215]

Ark desperately needs more birds and currently only has 13. So, behold the Aepyornis! 

 

 

Dossier 

 

Species: Aepyornis Maximus 

Diet: Herbivore 

Temperament: Territorial 

 

Wild: Aepyornis is the largest bird I have ever seen in these Arks. These giant beasts are highly territorial and they like to have personal space. Approaching an Aepyornis will provoke it, and it will relentlessly attack with repeated pecks and powerful stomps. Aepyornis swallow rocks to help grind up the plants it eats, but they can also spit out those rocks as projectiles like a sniper rifle, using its keen bird eyes to give it incredible accuracy. When in peaceful scenarios, Aepyornis will sit down and relax. While sitting, the Aepyornis will occasionally preen or dust bathe. Preening seems to make the Aepyornis’s feathers more aerodynamic, allowing increased speed while dust bathing sicks dirt to the Aepyornis’s feathers, acting as a form of armor. 

Domesticated: Tamed Aepyornis make amazing mounts. They can run extremely fast, especially if you have it preen its feathers first, and their powerful legs allow it to jump incredibly high and far. Aepyornis are also great in combat, being able to peck, stomp, and spit rocks at opponents as well as armor up by dust bathing for extra defense. Sadly, because preening would clean the dirt out of its feathers and dust bathing would ruffle up its feathers, it cant get both the preening and dust bathing benefits at the same time. 

 

Size 

 

Spawn Info 

 

Aepyornis live throughout the fertile region of Aberration and spawn in packs of 2-4. 

 

Taming Method 

 

To tame an Aepyornis, you must wait for it to sit down, and then approach it. You will want to crouch and have a full ghillie suit to prevent it from aggroing. Once you are close enough, you will get a prompt to “Clean feathers” which will give you a “Aepyornis friend” buff making Aepyornis passive to you and then you can feed the Aepyornis passively. It will continue to sit down and you will have to continue cleaning its feathers to keep the friend buff and to not drop its taming effectiveness. Repeat until tamed. 

 

Controls and Abilities 

 

Base stats: 

700 health. 

750 stamina. 

150 oxygen. 

2000 food. 

350 weight. 

100% melee damage. 

100% movement speed. 

500 torpidity. 

Requires a saddle to ride, which is learned at level 60. 

Passives: Radiation immune, fall damage immune, 50% weight reduction on stone (to be able to carry lots of ammo for its rock spit). 

Aepyornis Bleed (passive): Certain attacks apply Aepyornis bleed. Each stack adds 1 damage per second bleed (does actual damage like Deinonychus bleed) and stacks infinitely (example: 2 stacks = 2 damage bleed tick, 100 stacks = 100 damage bleed tick). One stack will dissipate every second. Can be applied to bosses. 

(Space, A, X) Jump: Incredible jump height and distance that is comparable to Karkinos. 

(LC, RT, R2) Peck: High attack speed but low damage low AoE attack. Attack speed of 2 attacks per second. Applies one stack of Aepyornis Bleed per hit. Can pick up stones of the ground with 2x the efficiency of a player. 

Hold (RC, LT, L2) Aim Rock Spit: Replaces (LC, RT, R2) with Rock Spit. 

Rock Spit: Requires 1 stone. The Aepyornis spits a high velocity rock in the direction you are aiming. The rock does high damage and applies 10 stacks of Aepyornis Bleed. Has a 5 second cooldown 

(C, RS, RS) Stomp: High damage and AoE attack, but has a 5 second cooldown. Can be used in the air to slam down, dealing extra damage based on how far you fell slamming down. Does not apply Aepyornis Bleed. 

(X, LB, L1) Sit: The Aepyornis enters Sitting Stance and can’t move. Hitting the button again will cause the Aepyornis to leave Sitting Stance. 

Sitting Stance Controls: 

(LC, RT, R2) Preen: The Aepyornis preens its feathers applying the “Smooth Feathers” effect to itself, which gives a 20% movement speed increase for 30 seconds. Counteracts the “Dirt Armor” effect. 

(RC, LT, L2) Same as normal stance. 

(C, RS, RS) Dust Bathe: The Aepyornis dust bathes applying the “Dirt Armor” effect to itself, which gives a 50% damage reduction for 30 seconds. Counteracts the “Smooth Feathers” effect. 

 

Special Item: Aepyornis Feathers: Once tamed, you can use the radial wheel to collect Aepyornis Feathers from it. Doing so will give you 25 Aepyornis Feathers and collecting has a 10-minute cooldown. The feathers can be used as a substitute for pelt and to make Aepyornis Feather Pillow. 

Aepyornis Feather Pillow: Cost: 50 Aepyornis Feathers, 25 Hide. Crafted in the inventory of an Aepyornis. Can be placed on a bed or bunk bed to reduce the respawn timer on that bed and allows you to fast travel from that bed without dropping your items. Two pillows can be attached to a bunk bed to further reduce the reduce the respawn timer. 

 

I hope you like the idea. Please help it get to the top ten. 

 

Wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aepyornis

Photo Credits: https://cryptidz.fandom.com/wiki/Elephant_Bird , https://www.reddit.com/r/pleistocene/comments/147npoj/aepyornis_maximus_was_a_gigantic_species_of_bird/ , https://www.facebook.com/104254078199827/posts/aepyornis-maximus-or-elephant-birds-that-lived-until-probably-the-middle-of-the-/377140484244517/

Edited July 8, 2023 by Ctron215

[Big11charlie]

Look like a good idea 😄

[Ctron215]

Please reply with any ideas you may have to improve my submission.

[H3XANDRA]

31 minutes ago, Ctron215 said:

Please reply with any ideas you may have to improve my submission.

I will post the submission that I have been voting for all the previous creature votes. Feel free to take from it. Edit: The original poster is Somes.

Edited July 8, 2023 by H3XANDRA

[Angel15]

good idea

[H3XANDRA]

Common Name: Aepyornis (AKA Elephant Bird)

Species: Aepyornis Maximus

Group: Ground Bird (Flightless Thunderbirds)

Pack/Herd/Flock Behavior: 2-3 adults per spawn, 3-4 young per spawn

Time/Era: Pleistocene and Holocene

Idle Temperament: Docile

Temperament On Hit: Skittish

Diet: Herbivore, Insectivore

Feces Size: Small

Tameable: Yes

Breedable: Yes

Rideable: Yes

Mounted Combat: Yes

Saddle Level: 40 for saddle bagged, 50 for multi-mount battle and 60 for small platform

Creature Harvesting: Seeds, Berries, Fiber, Thatch, Chitin, Sand, Cactus Sap, Honey

On Death Drops: Bird Skull Trophy, Raw Meat, Occasional Raw Prime Meat, (a new resource to make arrows) Feathers

Real Facts: Extinct from Madagascar, this massive bird is much like a Giant Moa. They are currently known to be the largest thunderbird/ratite. Compared to other birds in its family it is not the tallest but stands in around 9 to 11 feet tall, only a bit shorter than the Giant Moa. In terms of weight they are estimated to weigh in at around 1,600 to 1,900lbs...not far from a ton! The Aepyornis egg is 7 times larger than an Ostritch egg and sandy brown in color,it weighs in at around 18 to 20 pounds in fossil weight!

Wild Info: The nests of these birds are rather unprotected in the wild and are vulnerable to predators and humans alike. The nests are dug in sand and buried in a mound in the open dunes. While the nest is left vulnerable most of the time, if you pick up an egg with a parent near you will be attacked. Aepyornis is immune to the angering/aggro effects of rare flowers so stealing an egg may be the only way to get the birds attention in that regard.
Wild nests do have eggs but they will not be fertile most of the time. This is because they lose effectiveness quickly. This means that these creatures are pretty rare and have a small population.
There is a few distinctions between males and females. Unlike other birds,females are the more colorful ones and will be mostly black with a pinkish neck and head. A shade of blue under their chin and upper neck. White rings plumed atop the legs. Males will have more patterns but they will have tan,brown,auburn and some light to dark grey on their underside. This leads the females to look nicer in the wild but breeders will prefer to mutate the males to look better for show (See Images). Males are usually slightly smaller as well. Both males and females will have feathers/hairs on the top of their heads that are slicked back most of the time. They will stand up when upset in certain situations. Colors of the beak and legs usually match and are not tied to genders...those colors are usually tans,browns,greys,pinks,oranges and black.

Tamed (Domesticated) Info: Tribes see Aepyornis much like they see a good work Equus but some claim that they are not meant for battle and only have use for egg farming,meat and work related chores. The Aepyornis is well known to have great speed that rivals the Gallimimus but it takes a moment to pick up to that speed much like a Dire Bear. That being said, unlike the Gallimimus it has much better handling.

One bad weakness discovered is that it does not swim well and while it has above normal oxygen levels it is vulnerable if in deep water. This means if traveling to or from lands on boat,make sure they are not going to fall in the depths.

Otherwise, these birds are known to be pretty hearty and have a large stamina pool. They make to be versatile mounts. There is multiple (3) saddle types for Aepyornis for different types of roles and utility. A saddle that is built light with saddle bags, great for looting or escaping threats. A saddle built for battle with a bit more armor and an undercarriage for a second person! The other saddle is a small platform saddle that is great for building protection from storms but has a negative effect on speed the heavier the build on it gets and it gives immunity to the sandstorms while equipped. They can carry about as much as a Parasaur and make decent travel/pack animals while using the lighter saddle.

They have small to moderate damage in battle and they can cause a small bleed effect when using primary attacks using its beak. Its secondary attack is a hop kick that causes knock back similar to a procoptodon but be aware it hurts a bit more because of talons.

These amazing creatures have other amazing abilities such as being immune to venom. This makes them great for fending off or defending against things like Titanoboa and Araneomorphus. They also have the ability to forecast storms much like a Jerboa. They are known to have a buff against insectoids and will get a small chance of chitin when harvesting plants. Berries have reduced weight when carried too.

Taming: They are both passive and aggressive tames but not in the traditional ways. The method of taming the Aepyornis can be a challenge to tame.
One must first attain Rare Flowers because this is the only thing they will eat from you in this process. Once they eat from you they become affected like you would by the flower and than will stand in a cartoon ostrich pose and hide in plain sight! Now you must defend the bird until its ready to eat again but be warned that if the bird gets hit...it will remove the entire effectiveness and run away.
There is an alternative to the passive defense method but it will lose some levels. This method is to knock it out while it is posing but be careful because they are weak to tranq arrows in this state and must be hit in the right place for maximum torpor. A good rifle and darts are recommended.

Breeding/Farming: First things first, before you decide to breed and farm these majestic birds you should be aware that they will require your full attention. Their eggs lose effectiveness rather quickly so you must act fast and be ready. You will also need to build a sandbox nest to bury the eggs in,it is required. This birds eggs can not be placed in incubators but you can have one of your Aepyornis actually sit on the nest to incubate them.
An issue was discovered that these birds are a bit like a Gacha when kept. They will not be happy in large groups of their own kind and it is found that a tamed flock maxed out per territory is one male and 2 females. You will know if they are unhappy if the hairs/feathers on their head stand up.
It is possible to keep more together and let them be unhappy and stressed but than they will produce low level eggs. They will also not lay non fertile eggs if unhappy either.
Baby Aepyornis chicks will eat seeds until adult but will ask for Longrass or Regular Kibble on care.

 

Other Notes: These birds are not called thunderbirds for no reason. They have a taunt (idle defense mode toggle) ability to ward off small to some medium sized threats by thumping the ground with their feet causing a dust plume and a rumbling sound like a herd of elephants.