This issue is going to focus in on Dino Otherkins, mainly Raptoric. I'm going to add bits of facts, comments people have made about raptors, raptor articles and interviews from them. At the end of every issue, i've asked a friend of mine to write up a brief article about themself, and how it's been living as that certain phenotype. This issue's guest is my best friend Holly; she's an unknown raptor otherkin. Well hope you guys have fun, and get some real knowledge out of all this. I hate meeting close minded Pagans who refuse to accept the fact that Otherkins exist, as it's a Pagan belief as well. It's not fair for us to discriminate against Christians if we become the same close minded people that some of them are.

Raptor Info:

1) raptors likely hunted in large packs, most likely of over 7 individuals. small species may have run in mobs of over 20.

2) it's uncertain if they even moved in packs at all. many theropods would band together only long enough to attack prey. allosaurs, a direct ancestor of raptors, seem to have done this.

3) they were not monkey-level intellect. in fact, it's likely they were pretty stupid. there is NO evidence of advanced pack strategies, nor is there evidence in any way that the large brain was large for any other reason than big optic lobes.

4) feathers. while no raptor fossil is well enough preserved to show feathers or lack thereof, there is fossil evidence of feathers in almost every other maniraptoran dinosaur. according to the principle of phylogenetic bracketing, this means it is likely that they too had feathers. most likely covering their whole bodies.

5)movement. You likely couldn't get a real raptor to move like the beings in JP without a LOT of sedatives. these were small, lightly build and, most likely exceedingly hyperactive animals. i've seen cold monitor lizards exhibit more birdlike movement.

WereRaptor Interview:
Utahraptor Chick is a twenty-two year old utahraptor ostromayorsum. She considers herself to be a young utahraptor, but definitely an adult. She is an artist and has been actively awake to her nature for enough time to become something of an specialist on her own dromeosaur, as well as dinosaurs in general.

Swiftpaw
I'm not familiar with your kind of "wereraptor" but I am very familiar with dinosaurs. I was wondering, primarily, what sort of mentality you have when completely utahraptor (hereby shortened to 'raptor' for ease of use). Relative to the human mentality, that is.

Utahraptor
First of all, I'm a Utahraptor ostromaysorum......ever heard of them? well, i m-shift and when i do, i still think consciously and all......but i do feel quite different sometimes. It heightens my senses and i often feel like i actually have the claws and the tail and snout and eyes and everything. i know my vision is quicker and more defined. more able to catch things in my peripheral vision.

Swiftpaw
I know only of the basic Utahraptor discoveries in Utah, so I'm not an expert like you are. I don't know the different subspecies nor what defines them, so let's start with that.

Utahraptor
They have only found that one Utahraptor......so there have not been any other species or subspecies of Utahraptor found....ostromaysorum is just the species name that they gave it.

Swiftpaw
Was the Utahraptor a pack hunter like the velociraptor?

Utahraptor
Yes, they are pack hunters.

Swiftpaw
How are you a Utahraptor? Let me give you an example so I can kind of understand your answer, because I always get lost when anybody answers this question ::grin:: I am a jaguar in that my mentality bandies back and forth between completely lovable and relaxed to completely vicious and unrelenting. Physically, my 'body energy' is that of a cat. Someone rubs my ears or my neck, I purr. Automatic. There is power in my shoulders and my center of gravity is a bit different. I'm also female, so that makes a bit of difference. What sort of specific attributes make you a Utahraptor and not something else? What defines you, specific stuff?

Utahraptor
thats a tough one....its not something that i can prove to anyone else.....i do growl a lot lol......and i well, ive always had this connection with the raptors, especially Utahraptor, after it was found [in 1993]...even before i knew anything about weres, years ago, i always thought of myself as a raptor, and would refer to myself as such. its just something i feel.......i can identify with them well, i have this extreme passion for dinosaurs, esp. the raptors, which i have had for at least 8 years now, probably 9....i draw them, i cant shut up about them, and i can feel them and the way they are.......ppl ask me why and i dont know, cant explain it...

Swiftpaw
There is nothing about proof online in the therianthropy world, don't worry. It's all personal experience ::grin:: Give a guess at explanations, try to do some searchig here for me. Is the growling low or high pitched, (how it should sound in a real utahraptor throat, not a human throat) and is it long or short, raspy, how would you describe it?

Utahraptor
well....depends on what mood im in......its not just growling, i make lots of little raptor sounds.....eeps and squawks and growls and snarls.......and the like......the growl is kinda deep-throated, short and raspy.......if it is an angry growl it is longer and with more emphasis. and Utahraptor growls are kind of low-pitched. oh and i "grrrk" and "eep" a lot, too

Swiftpaw
I can't wait to contrast this to velociraptors ::grin:: I bet they're squeakier. So next... what's your body structure like? Mine mirrors my animal, does yours? Jaguars are more climbers and pouncers than runners, and that goes for me as well. How are you built? Can you run well?

Utahraptor:
well......oddly im not that great a runner, but i am stockier (please dont see that as a bad thing lol) and i do have really strong legs, as raptors do. (and yes Veloci's are squeakier, they chirp)......hmm, i do have really big eyes

Swiftpaw
No, I'm stocky too, don't worry. I think you're right on for your species, then, and that's interesting. Do you ever want to jerk your neck around in ways humans are not built for?

Utahraptor
yep.....

Swiftpaw
What it is like to be a Utahraptor when it comes to relating to people, to your family ad close friends?

Utahraptor
ive always felt that they misunderstood me.....i tell them im a raptor and they take it as play, which i can deal with....but well......ive always been misunderstood by most people.......it gets really lonely sometimes, as i prefer a "pack" rather than being alone. my dad and i, well, our relationship was never very pretty at all. around most people, i am actually shy, because well, they dont understand or even care about me (sorry to sound depressive here)....if i feel that they do understand and care, then i will open up to them......in which case, im very playful and fun to be around, sometimes

Swiftpaw
So let me see if I've got this right. Not being able to tell your family sucks because you're inherently a 'pack animal' and so you want to have the support you should automatically have, if you were in the Cretaceous. Have you ever found that you leaned on a person without realizing it, expecting completely unconditional support, but then if you did something strange or wacky, if you're dropped, it's unexpected and it hurts? Not asking for details, of course, just a general answer.

Utahraptor
yes!!!!!!!!! all the time, and its SO frustrating......im dealing with that right now, actually, and it hurts

Swiftpaw
Not so different from some wolves I know, actually. So your nature at heart is playful and fun, when you're safe and protected and in a good environment? Sort of, and don't hurt me for this, a "young" utahraptor? How old are you, anyway? I'm sixteen and I've just recently pulled finally out of the "kitten" phase, which for jaguars is much different than pack animals. But we're still cuddly when around friends, and willing to play-hunt around them, too. If that makes sense, and I think it does.

Utahraptor
actually, im 22.......believe it or not lol......but well, most ppl see 'raptors as these mean, ferocious creatures....and they can be.....and you definitely wouldnt want to make them mad, or to be their prey, lol....but they are very loyal to pack and not only that, they are very playful sometimes, acting like raptor chicks. thats one of the things i have always admired about raptors. the ability to be fierce and protective when they need to be, and the ability to play also. i would say that i consider myself a young adult...not terribly old but not extremely young either and yes also, with the needs and wants of a Utahraptor.

Swiftpaw
Like wolves. Very cool. So now, is it because you're inherently a pack animal that you feel a need to tell others in reality what you are, even when there's a really, really good chance they'll treat it like a game or laugh at you?

Utahraptor
yeah.......and i carefully say it in such a way that i wont get hurt.......like i simply say......"im a raptor" as opposed to "im a were-dino" lol......that wouldnt go too well with most ppl....but yeah, i always say im a raptor around ppl i know.....and they just learn to see that as something i do. actually usually, the next step is for ppl to ask why i say im a utahraptor, and i say that i identify with them and such.......also, im an artist and have the excuse that its my creative mind working lol....

Swiftpaw
Are you feathered? Do you ever feel that you have feathers on your body, or are you drawn to them?

Utahraptor
hmm well some of the smaller raptors are...i am not feathered all over. i do have a crest of feathers on the back of my head though.. well.....hmm, i guess i do feel them sometimes. i just never thought about it. but yeah, sometimes i can feel what feels like a crest, raising or lowering..when i make certain expressions.

Swiftpaw
Do you find it hard to separate what's Utahraptor about you and what's human about you, and does it really come up a lot about what's your motivation?

Utahraptor
i dont really try to separate the human side from the dino side.......im me, i have one and the same personality, and not multiple ones, and i guess i accept that about me....

Swiftpaw
That's good, then. Lucky.

Utahraptor
lucky? is that something people struggle with?

Swiftpaw
Oh, YES, especially teenagers. Not being taken seriously is hell for a lot of weres. Do you feel the need to be in charge of your friends, or is it more egalitarian? How do issues of dominance work when you meet new people, even if they have no idea that there *is* a dominance issue. Do you have feelings of needing to defer to some people, while with others it's a clear-cut case of you being in control of the situation and you NEED to be in control over them? Either because they're just idiots or they're a threat... stuff like that. How do pack dynamics work?

Utahraptor
well........i never try to control anyone.......i have had people who try to control me, and that hurts, i dont want to do the same thing to people......we Utahraptors are very loyal pack members, and it isnt always a dead-set pack structure with say, an alpha or beta creature, or such.......most larger raptors have smaller packs than smaller ones......for instance, Velocis have large packs, Deinonychs, kinda large but slightly smaller........maybe about ten or so......Utahraptors group up with mates and family to create packs of 4 or 5.....though sometimes they will get larger than that........so being in smaller packs.....pack leadership often alternates from one pack member to the next......at least, with the adult raptors......its more of a bond thing than something you have to fight for.....does that make sense? some of the smaller raptor species however, do have that set alpha-beta sorta structure.......

Swiftpaw
Enlightening.. it's not what I thought. Wheee, ::waves byebye to stereotypes:: Thank you for answering my questions.

Utahraptor
its nice to well, have someone write that we arent all bloodthirsty monsters either.

Guest Interview: Life as a Raptor

My name is Holly Elizabeth Johnson. It's a normal average every day name. At first glance you would think me just another average person, you wouldn't know how wrong you are. I may be average looking on the outside, and I may have a normal average human name. But I am not human. I am of a classification of a race who call ourselves Otherkin. I was asked by my best friend to write this, and I hope that you will enjoy reading this as I did writing it.

I am a Werecreature. In the Otherkin/Were community I go by the name Silverback, no I'm not a Gorilla, the name Silverback came to me in a dream where I was in my wolf form running free through an enchanted looking forest. In the dream I was a Timber wolf with cream-colored fur with some streaks of red and silver, with the silver colored fur covering my entire back.

But that isn't the part of me that I will be focusing on talking about. Besides being a wolf, I am also a Dinosaur, a Raptor of an unidentified species. I discovered my Raptor side about a year ago, in the summer/autumn of 2001. My awakening process started about the time that I suddenly started to have an interest in dinosaurs again. I have been an avid lover of dinosaurs ever since I was in preschool, I would play dinosaur and chase people around the school, while listening to the people I was playing with laugh and giggle, and pretend to scream, those were the good old days.. The world accepted me at this age, I was free to act as I was, I could run around and screech, eep, and squeak all I wanted and my friends would just laugh giggle and run around. As time passed I was no longer allowed to do these things, my parents were very strict about such things, and basically made me "grow up" was their choice of words I believe. I did as I was told or else I was punished for not "acting normal" by my parents. Finally they forced me to hide myself inside, they took me to a psychiatrist and I was diagnosed by him with A.D.D or Attention Defecate Disorder, and put on a medication called Ritalin, that I was forced to take several times a day, and my raptor side retreated and went into a hibernation type state. My parents satisfied that the medication was doing its job made me continue taking it until the 7th grade.

There is only one time that I can remember my raptor side coming out of hiding between this period of time, and that was in the 5th grade. A well known school bully was threatening one of my "only friends". He loved to provoke me, to see me get mad… you know the old saying about ignoring them and they will go away?..never worked with him. I don't remember everything, but I do remember that he hurt that friend, and that I jumped onto his back with a loud shriek, if I remember right I bit his spine too.. I didn't get suspended though thank god.. I didn't know it at the time being to young to know what had come over me from out of nowhere, but I had one of those involuntary M-shifts that you hear about every so often. I didn't hurt him so I didn't get in trouble, if I remember right I was in a headlock about 2 seconds later when the teacher came… That is the only memorable time that my raptor side came out of hiding while I was on that medication.

I discovered my raptor side after I had been soul searching for a while, I was going through one of those times when you question your sanity, its not fun but I hear its good for you. One night during this time, I had another dream, I was running through a prehistoric tropical rainforest, the air was warm and moist with humidity, and the leaves of the ferns glistened with the morning dew. The rainforest had sprouted out of nowhere and engulfed the house with plants. A volcano could be seen out of the upstairs window, and the screeches and bellows of an unseen raptor pack could be heard all around me. A raptor jumped out of nowhere with a screech and jumped not on me, but into me.. and that dream ended.. another dream happened around this time, I was walking down the hall of what looked like an expensive classy motel, the carpets were of the finest red velvet, and the walls had a quaint décor about them. A large claw foot mirror stood at one side of the hall next to a spiral staircase that went downstairs. An anthro leopard came out of one of the halls, she looked at me with a warm look, and beckoned me to look into the mirror. I walked forward and stepped in front of the mirror as she requested, and I saw my soul. Somehow there was a transparent looking raptor, looking back at me, the same with a wolf who was somehow me as well. Then that dream ended…

This was the beginning to the awakening to my raptor side. After these occurrences I did some serious soul searching, I delved deep into myself, and found the raptor, and let it out. Not just to stretch from its long years sleep, but to awaken fully. After this I learned quite a bit about raptors, through both M-shifts, reading, and the rare but occasional phantom shift. I discovered things that not even scientists know, or have ever written to date as a fact about raptors. I will tell you a bit about the raptor species.

Since it is still unknown what species of raptor I am, due to the fact that my dreams, and phantom shifts don't match any known species at this time, I will tell you what I know. All raptors are playful by nature, whether they are of the Velociraptor species, the Utahraptor species or whatever species I am. I have yet to meet a were-velociraptor, but I do know of several Utahraptors who are friends of mine. Besides being playful, we are also extremely curious, think of us as cats with scales in this respect, lol. Life can be very stressful not knowing what you are, I thought that I was a velociraptor until I had my first phantom shift. The size and some body structure was all wrong for a velociraptor, due to the fact that despite the popularity of the Jurassic Park raptors, velociraptors are only about 2-3ft tall, and about 6ft long. The species that I am is about 6-8ft tall, and about 14ft long from snout to tail. So it had to be impossible for me to be a veloci. And I couldn't be a Utahraptor because the head shape was wrong, the snout too short and broad as well. I finally brought this up on a werecommunity message board, and someone emailed me saying that I could either be a hybrid, or a so far undiscovered, or unnamed species. I thought about this for a while, and soon found myself agreeing with this theory. I went through an extremely annoying time when a Werecreature who I will keep unnamed here when around and started ranting about the existence of were raptors and why we can't exist and such. If you frequent any of the more well known were message boards you may have even read it. This was a hurtful time for many of us raptors as we tried in vain to explain ourselves. But this unnamed individual kept poking and prodding at us, calling us roleplayers and fakes no matter what we told of ourselves to convince him that we were as real as any other species of were. This got him mad, and he started posting everywhere about us, and brought up the topic all the time. Most of us went to seek friendlier weres and messageboards. Thankfully this individual seems to have stopped his ranting and raving about our existence, and we have since moved back into some of the more populated boards. As well as created our own for the raptor community, though its not limited to raptors. I will give the link to it at the end of this, which is quite close now. I'm sure that you may be wondering exactly what I know of the appearence of my species, to answer your question picture a raptor, a two legged predator with a narrow snout filled with small dagger like teeth. The eyes are like golden street lamps that glow with intelligence, humor, and of course the famous raptor curiousity. Imagine this creature to have deep forest green pebbly skin, with spider-web like bright green lines zigzagging across the skin, to break up the raptor's shape, and add to the ability to camoflauge into the bright green ferns and shadows of towering palms. A swanlike neck curves gracefully into the back and shoulders, and a striking purple feather crest sways in the tropical breeze, and seems to melt and dissipear into the nape of the neck. Red-brown proto-feathers dust the top of the back, and end at the base of the tail melting into the myrad of green colors of the pebbly skin. The arms are thin but muscular, and are tucked to the side, forward instead of backward like a bird, though this is possible as well, but not a preferred arm position. The hands end in three fingers with hooked shiny black claws, and the legs are strong looking and are designed like that of a cat, curving into the feet. The feet have three toes, one on each foot which has a scythe like retractible claw, that causes the toe to curve upright instead of straight like the others. And the tail is strong and rod-like in apearence, and narrows down to a dull point. The elbows have about four redish feathrers sprouting from their back. And a small bony like armor covers the top of the snout from between the eyes to the nostrils. Thank you for taking the time out to read this. Blessed Be - Silverback