Predators on my mind...

Trish and I took one of our grandsons to Planet Comicon in Kansas City, where my inner nerd got overstimulated by all the amazing artists, authors, gadgets, and celebrities. We even attended a presentation by William Shatner. Grandson did not know who Shatner was, but he knew all the voice actors of an animated show called Hazbin Hotel, and he got to meet two of them... I had never even heard of the show. So, we learned from him, and he learned from us.

I don't wear costumes (an activity called cosplay), but I love seeing all the amazing costumes people have made. Many people take it very seriously and spend thousands of dollars on their costumes. I was so impressed with this Predator costume that I had to pose for a selfie with this guy (FIRST PHOTO).

So now I'm in the mood to talk about predators in general. Predators play a major role in many, if not all, of my novels. Some of my predators are rather fantastical, like the giant wingless birds in "Bridgers 1: The Lure of Infinity" or the flesh-eating eclipse bugs in "Primal Eclipse". Others, though, are real predators, like the extinct giant monitor lizard called Megalania in "Fused: Training Day" or the crocodiles in "Infusion".

Let's talk about a fantastical predator and then a real predator.

I like creating fantastical creatures because I can let my imagination go wild. One of my favorites is the monstrous eight-foot-tall anglerbeast. This creature makes several dramatic appearances in "Bridgers 4: The Mind of Many" (SECOND PHOTO).

Notice the glowing orbs at the end of each of the anglerbeast's antennae? This predator will approach a large framework mound (hill-sized mounds that are common on the world featured in this book) and will insert the orbs into the mound's dark interior. The strange light of the orbs will hypnotize cat-sized skitterbugs living inside the mound, and the skitterbugs will follow the lights up and out of the mound. As you can probably guess, the predatory anglerbeast then snatches the hypnotized skitterbugs in its powerful mandibles and feasts on them.

I suppose I got the idea for the anglerbeast from anglerfish, which are real fish that attract their prey with a single glowing orb dangling in front of their mouth.

Okay, now let's consider one of my favorite real predators in my novels—the cave hyena (THIRD PHOTO). Cave hyenas have a particularly intense attack scene in "Obsolete Theorem".

Cave hyenas were actually one of the most abundant apex predators throughout Eurasia, including Spain where "Obsolete Theorem" takes place 47,000 years in the past. Cave hyenas went extinct about 20,000 years ago, and it's possible humans played a role in their extinction.

Like the modern-day spotted hyena, cave hyenas probably hunted in packs. How do we know? Because cave hyenas preyed mostly on large mammals like wild horse, steppe bison, and aurochs (aurochs were massive bovine mammals thought to be the wild ancestors of modern cattle). Killing mammals as big as these would require cooperative hunting, even for the large cave hyenas.

Cave hyenas weighed close to 200 pounds (91 kg), which would make them about 60% larger than spotted hyenas, the largest hyenas living today (spotted hyenas are sometimes called laughing hyenas).

Imagine being an early human or a Neanderthal 50,000 years ago, armed only with a stone-tipped spear, and being attacked by a pack of 200-pound cave hyenas. That would ruin your day real quick.

Photo Credits:
- Anglerbeast and cave hyena - Midjourney
- Comicon photo - Grandson Brennan