Rakk

Rakk are flying creatures native to Pandora.

Physiology
Rakk do not have beaks. Instead they have a flat, fleshy head ending with a pointed snout, and hooked, raspingbarbs lining a soft, slit-like mouth on the bottom with a brightly colored, bony plate on the top. Rakk also don't have grasping talons or lower limbs, but sport a set of curved, razor-sharp talons upon a flexible tail that they use to adhere to rocky surfaces. Carnivorous and known to kill living prey, Rakk can swoop down and use their tail to lacerate their targets without losing speed, letting them quickly gain altitude and set up another attack run. Rakk appear to be highly social creatures with a task-based hierarchy that includes scouts, hive defenders, food processing, and perhaps even long-term food storage not unlike Honey Pot Ants on Earth. They are also vocal, howling or screeching to rally a flock when a target presents itself or proves itself to be a threat.

Rakk
Common Rakk are dark brown with bright orange markings on its head, tail, and wings. The most regularly encountered type, the common Rakk can normally be seen circling the sky waiting for something to blunder into the territory of its flock. Sometimes they can be seen hanging upside down, preening themselves with their rasp-covered mouth.

Feeder Rakk
Feeder Rakk are bluish white with slightly darker blue splotch-stripes running down the length of their fat lower bodies and tails. Like common Rakk they are most often encountered either circling in the sky, or hanging upside down. When killed they release all digested matter, which for the resourceful scavenger can translate into a great deal of money.

Bloated Rakk
Bloated Rakk are easily identified by their large size and brightly acidic-green color and lemon-yellow markings. They are rarely encountered out and in the open, usually appearing only when the hive is threatened or the flock is called. Bloated Rakk, like Feeder Rakk, will drop items when they die.

Defender Rakk
This caste exists only to defend the hive, and rarely venture far from it. Apart from being grey-coloured, they are quite similar to their "common" brethren.

Kamikaze Rakk
Like the aforementioned type, they only appear from the profound guts of the awakened Rakk Hive. What makes them even more unique is their suicidal attack; they simply explode upon contact with the victim. Kamikaze Rakk have dark, green bodies and lurid, orange wings. They're also the smallest kind.

Rakk Hive
The Rakk Hive is a gigantic quadruped with four pearl-like eyes and a number of holes spread across its back. The holes are home to flights of Rakk, which themselves will swarm to attack anything that gets near the hive. The hibernation cycle of a Rakk Hive lasts much longer than that of the other species on Pandora. They are visible in their dormant state by their exposed backs protruding above the ground while most of their body remains submerged.

Rakk seem to be a sort of parasitic creature as they live inside of the fatty humps on the back of Rakk Hives, with the cavities possibly having been dug out by the Rakk. Alternately, the relationship may be symbiotic with the Rakk gaining new hunting and foraging territories every Pandoran year as well as a temperature-controlled haven during the long Pandoran winter. The Rakk Hive gains protection from predators while they hibernate and migrate throughout the Pandoran summer, and possibly gains information on where to find food.

Behind the scenes

 * Despite their aggressive behavior it is inferred that Rakk are also scavengers as well as predators.
 * The name "Rakk" is a possible reference to the giant mythical hunting bird, the Roc.
 * Special Rakk are usually named and made to look like large birds of prey or large insect like creatures.

Appearances

 * Borderlands