Robert Bakker - RAPTOR RED

Just a few pheromone molecules tell Raptor Red that she’s in danger of losing the young male. The breeze coming from the direction of the flowers carries the distinctive pheromones of three different female Utahraptor, and all three are in a state of sexual aggressiveness.

Raptor Red strides forward, directly toward the young male. The smell of manure + carrion from the flowers is almost suffocating, but her brain filters out the scent molecules. Her whole sensory being is focused on two groups of female raptors who are approaching her young male from the far side of the thicket.

She looks back at her sister, who’s pacing back and forth, flailing her long arms, and snarling and hissing at the flowers, at the unknown female raptors, and at the young male.

Raptor Red is relieved that her sister isn’t following her.

The young male is squatting down, his nose buried in a deep profusion of pink petals. His brain refuses to accept the notion that there’s no iguanodon dung down there.

He pops his head up, and sees that he’s surrounded by Utahraptor femininity. A strange female, much larger and older than he, is making head-bobbing movements of greeting. Another strange female, younger, taller, thinner, is making mock-charges, spreading her arms outward as she lowers her head. That’s a more intense courtship greeting, and it scares the male. He backs away.

Sssssss - rrrrrRK! The older female smacks the younger one with her tail and bites. For a second there’s a violent barrage of strikes and counter strikes, as arms and feet, tails and necks slash back and forth.

The younger female retreats, crying loudly. Clumps of skin, ripped off her back, drift down onto the flowers. The older female turns toward the young male and repeats a courtship dance three times, getting closer and closer to the male.

He forgets about the manure-scented flowers. He’s scared of the big female. He hasn’t been fought over before. He’s engaged in courtship dances - six times last year he tried out his mating choreography, and six times he was rejected by assorted females. Each time it was a one-on-one situation. He performed, and a single female reacted.

This year he tried once, with Raptor Red. She gave him equivocal responses, her enthusiasm damped by her sister’s presence. Utahraptor courtships between first-time breeders can last for months, since it takes a long time to cement male and female together in a pair-bond. And first-time couples that finally do bond may not actually reproduce until the next season.

Raptor Red isn’t the ideal mate, if her situation were evaluated by some dispassionate computer. The sister is an obvious liability. Still, the young male is captivated by her. Something about Raptor Red makes him want to hang around, to try to make the pair-bond firm. Raptor Red has been gentle in all her responses to his advances, and he finds that attractive.

SKKKKKAWK!

The big strange female is growing agitated. The presence of so many Utahraptors in one spot is heating up emotions. The sight and scent of the flowers have caused an unnatural concentration of unattached females. The young male finds himself in the unwanted status of Most Desirable Male. It’s a self-amplifying situation. As soon as one female pays attention to him, the other females shift their efforts toward courting him.

It’s a universal phenomenon - if you appear desirable, more members of the opposite sex will desire you. The appearance of popularity automatically raises your popularity. It’s not a bad evolutionary system - if you see a potential mate being pursued by members of the opposite sex, it pays to check it out. There’s a better-than-even chance the potential mate has some superior quality that will lead to a brood of high-survival kids.

SKKKAWWK! An even larger female Utahraptor now interrupts the scene, cutting in on the older female who’s been displaying to the young male. This newly arrived female is stupendous - two hundred pounds bigger than he is - and is totally buffed, with huge muscles in her shoulders, thighs, and calves.

He tries to look away, to avoid having to give a response to the dance. She wheels around, coming at him sideways.

'Skrrawk… skrrawk… skrrawk. '

She’s insistent. She repeats the beginning moves of the courtship routine, demanding that he reply.

He steps sideways. There’s another strange female, more slender than the dinosaur Valkyrie in front of him. She has an exceptionally bright red snout-patch. He nods to her.

She nods back and commences a low-key dance.

'Sssssssssss. ' The big female lurches, half dancing, half threatening, her mouth wide open. She turns toward the young female, then back to the male, then back to the young female.

The young female looks away, avoiding eye contact. She turns and slides sideways, putting distance between herself and the Valkyrie.

The young male feels his Jacobson organ fill up with dueling pheromones. A dozen female Utah-raptors have opened up their throat-glands, narrow slits on the underside of their lower jaws. Each gland releases a potent cocktail of sexually provocative molecules.

The giant female advances fast, in a series of runs. He can’t avoid looking at her massive muzzle.

THHHHHHNK!

He’s bumped very hard. This female is very insistent - and pissed off that he refuses to play his part in the ritual. The raptor dance is a duet. One partner makes a move, and the other must respond, inducing the first partner to continue. Either partner can break off the ceremony, but usually the breakup comes after the two partners have danced for many minutes, checking each other out, evaluating size, vigor, health, and athletic prowess.

Thnk! He gets another forceful nudge from the monstrous female. Her behavior is becoming uncontrolled - stoked by unnatural levels of competitiveness.

He still refuses to join the duet.

Snp.

He flinches. He can see a tiny red spot at the base of his shoulder. She’s bitten him. Love and hate are adjacent emotions in the mating season. • FWWWNNK!

A flying object sends the huge female sprawling twelve feet. She slides on her back into the flowers, gets up and emits shrieks of rage, beating the branches with fury. An avalanche of pink flowers cascades down from the tree and gradually hides her from view.

The young male draws himself up to full height and stares at the object that collided with the giant female.

It’s Raptor Red.

The young male tries to make himself look as small as possible. He lowers his body and lays his head down among the purple-pink flowers. He knows he’s about to be fought over by two female Utahraptors. He’s seen this happen to other males - and it’s not an event he’s ever looked forward to.

The giant female lying on the ground puffs out her chest and hisses. She contracts her finger-flexing muscles so that Raptor Red can see the tendons, thick as pine saplings, bulging at the wrist. The female Goliath looks awkward and clumsy sprawled out on her backside, so Raptor Red advances, making her own hissing threats.

But with one quick push-off from her thighs, the female rolls over, throws her torso four feet into the air, and lands on her feet. It’s a marvelously graceful motion. Raptor Red takes a short step backward. The giant female bobs her head in a slow, exaggerated movement, as if to acknowledge the unspoken admiration for the move. And then she turns to the young male and makes a low, hoarse cooing noise.

Raptor Red half closes her eyelids and jumps forward, howling a threat-call that makes the young male cringe. But the giant female doesn’t move an inch. Instead, she chomps her jaws together noisily, showing the gleaming-white row of recurved teeth. The young male can’t help noticing that those teeth are of exceptional dimensions for a Utahmptor.