With Raptor Red, Robert Bakker gives us a glimpse at a long distant past through the eyes of a creature unlike any other. We follow Raptor Red, a young female utahraptor who has just lost her mate. Desperate for company, and the possibility of a new mate, Raptor Red searches for others of her kind. In a stroke of rapturine luck, she stumbles upon her sister, who has also lost a mate. Red’s sister has three chicks she is raising alone, so Red joins her to help care for them. The next year will find the raptor family, along with other raptor packs, moving farther and farther west, escaping from encroachment by acrocanthosaurs.
A potential mate joins the small group, but he’s eventually driven off by Red’s sister, who doesn’t approve of a foreign male near her chicks. He’s too much of a danger. Even though it’s Red and not her sister that he’s interested in, there’s still the possibility that he could turn on the chicks because they aren’t his. The loss of two pack members make finding a partner priority for Red. They need hunting help. Year’s end finds the pack increased significantly, with lifemate pairs, and new chicks. They’ve entered a land where, for now, there is an abundance of food.
Told entirely from the view of these sentient yet vastly different beings, Raptor Red breathes life and vibrancy into dusty bones of the ancient past. Much, by necessity, is speculation. There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that raptors could have, and likely would have, behaved in such ways. These were the beasties that our birds eventually descended from, after all. There’s a reason why they share the same appellation as our modern birds of prey.
Occasionally, the author delved into the minds of other species. I enjoyed seeing the thought processes of these other beasts, such as astrodon, and gastonia, a brontosaurid, and ankylosaurid respectively. Oh, and the Trinity turtle! It was cute to see how the curious raptors interacted with the environment. Red investigates the turtle, turning the closed shell into a toy before finally leaving the placid, patient creature to her business. She and her family play with a small troop of troodon in the snow. Other critters were quite smart in their own way, too. The big, white-winged pterosaur that worked with the raptors, like wolves and ravens, scouting potential prey and leading the pack to it. This is the perfect read for anyone interested in dinosaurs, or who enjoys animal-centric stories.
***Read and reviewed for my enjoyment
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