Griffin Concept

[ Entry: Maned Wolf // Secretary Bird ]
Renowned for its long limbs and feathers, the Maned Secretary Griffin was well adapted to tall grasslands and tremendous valleys, where it would often roost in the surrounding mountains, gliding across the vast plains to hunt its prey.

Once, the territory of these majestic creatures spread far and wide across Africa and South America, however due to their primary wing and tail feathers being the longest in the world (averaging at 2.3 meters), they were hunted to near extinction as a trophy piece in the early 1840's - and the larger, African subspecies was declared officially extinct on April 4th 1983.

Now, only the smaller and more slender, south american cousin of the Maned Secretary Griffin remains, and they too are reaching critically endangered, as there are estimated to be less than 600 individuals left in the wild.
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Competition piece 'design a griffin from 2 existing animals' - Might have had too much fun with this one, I'm thinking of using this design for a future project :)
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