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Description
Scientific name: Chirostenotes pergracilis
Diet: plants, meat (at the Zoo they eat berries)
Projected natural lifespan: 6 years
Length: 2 meters (~7 feet)
Weight: 90 kilograms (~198 pounds)
Locality: Alberta, Canada (Dinosaur Park Formation), 76.5 Ma (Late Cretaceous Campanian)
Exhibit: Egg Thieves

About:
Chirostenotes was an oviraptorosaur, a type of relatively bird-like dinosaurs. These dinosaurs were more bird-like than their close cousins, and surely if you'd see one alive you'd think it's a really weird bird.

Description and behavior:
The first thing observant Zoo visitors notice about the Chirostenotes is their distinctive coloration, which is almost identical to that of the modern day Indian peafowl. This is seen as an example of convergent evolution, wherein two completely unrelated species independently evolve similar traits. In Chirostenotes and peacocks, not only were the colors similar, but even some behaviors are. These include making very similar calls (to the point that some Zoo staff are woken up at night by the Chirostenotes calling, thinking they're hearing peacocks), and having similar diets: low-growing plants, mostly seeds, fruits (particularly berries) and leaves. However, being omnivores, Chirostenotes also have to eat meat from time to time. These dinosaurs are known to get quite aggressive when they haven't eaten meat in a long time. Experiments were performed on the Zoo animals to show the limits of this behavior. In one experiment, they were fed plants and left to stay. After a set number of time, the experimenters fed them meat. The longer the dinosaurs spent without eating meat, the more aggresive they became. After one hour without meat, they are still relatively docile, but after one day they get really aggressive. In fact, one of the individuals has been found to have cruelly torn apart the dead rat it was given after the trial period. Apparently, one Zoo worker has been so shocked by this event that he left the Zoo that day and was never seen again.

At the Zoo:
The Egg Thieves exhibit has a pen with seventeen Chirostenotes.

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The behavior is inspired by cassowaries and peacocks.

The skeletal I used belongs to Funston, 2020.

The mass estimate comes from a deviation by Green-Mamba .

Description
Scientific name: Chirostenotes pergracilis
Diet: plants, meat (at the Zoo they eat berries)
Projected natural lifespan: 6 years
Length: 2 meters (~7 feet)
Weight: 90 kilograms (~198 pounds)
Locality: Alberta, Canada (Dinosaur Park Formation), 76.5 Ma (Late Cretaceous Campanian)
Exhibit: Egg Thieves

About:
Chirostenotes was an oviraptorosaur, a type of relatively bird-like dinosaurs. These dinosaurs were more bird-like than their close cousins, and surely if you'd see one alive you'd think it's a really weird bird.

Description and behavior:
The first thing observant Zoo visitors notice about the Chirostenotes is their distinctive coloration, which is almost identical to that of the modern day Indian peafowl. This is seen as an example of convergent evolution, wherein two completely unrelated species independently evolve similar traits. In Chirostenotes and peacocks, not only were the colors similar, but even some behaviors are. These include making very similar calls (to the point that some Zoo staff are woken up at night by the Chirostenotes calling, thinking they're hearing peacocks), and having similar diets: low-growing plants, mostly seeds, fruits (particularly berries) and leaves. However, being omnivores, Chirostenotes also have to eat meat from time to time. These dinosaurs are known to get quite aggressive when they haven't eaten meat in a long time. Experiments were performed on the Zoo animals to show the limits of this behavior. In one experiment, they were fed plants and left to stay. After a set number of time, the experimenters fed them meat. The longer the dinosaurs spent without eating meat, the more aggresive they became. After one hour without meat, they are still relatively docile, but after one day they get really aggressive. In fact, one of the individuals has been found to have cruelly torn apart the dead rat it was given after the trial period. Apparently, one Zoo worker has been so shocked by this event that he left the Zoo that day and was never seen again.

At the Zoo:
The Egg Thieves exhibit has a pen with seventeen Chirostenotes.

----

The behavior is inspired by cassowaries and peacocks.

The skeletal I used belongs to Funston, 2020.

The mass estimate comes from a deviation by Green-Mamba .