"Raptor Red" is a book that follows the life of a Utah raptor, through the eyes of a raptor named Raptor Red. In the beginning of the book, Raptor Red and her consort are hunting together; the consort gets his leg stuck in mud, and eventually sinks into it and dies. After Raptor Red's consort dies, Raptor Red becomes depressed for several weeks. Raptor Red is now living off of washed up fish. She is struggling to find a mate because she is losing weight and getting weak. Then, Raptor Red runs into her sister, who has had several chicks.
After living with her sister for a while, Raptor Red finds a consort, who unfortunately has an instinct to try to kill the chicks. Raptor Red's sister hates the new consort. Raptor Red's consort was able to leave the chicks alone, until one day when one of the chicks kept getting on his nerves; he grabbed the chick in his mouth.
Raptor Red
Paperback cover with holographic illustration by S...Raptor Red's sister was about to fight the consort, and when Raptor Red tried to calm her sister down, her sister slashes her, and runs after the consort on a beach. Then, out of nowhere, a male and female acro attack and the consort drops the chick. Raptor Red and the female acro are now fighting in the water, when a kronosaur suddenly grabs and kills the female acro. The male acro takes a last look at his mate, and retreats. After the battle Raptor Red is happy about her victory, until she sees her consort walk away.
A week after Raptor Red and her sister managed to lure the female acro into the ocean, three more family groups of across show up on the beach. Raptor Red and her sister could not deal with them, so they were forced to move north, into the mountains. Raptor Red is depressed about losing another consort by now. She is in a bad mood all day, very clumsy, and her sister has become the leader of the pack. Now, the raptor pack is living in the mountains, being the neighbors of an iguanodon pack, living off of dead animals, and drinking the terrible water of a nearby pond.
It is beginning to get cold and snow, so the raptor pack is forced to move higher into the mountains to find a shelter. As they move higher, it gets colder, and the raptor chicks are close to dying. Finally, the pack finds a cave to live in. The cave is the home of segnosaurs.
About a month or so after the raptors move into the cave, Raptor Red notices a new and strange behavior of her sister. Raptor Red's sister had been snuffling the soil, stamping her foot, growling, pawing dirt over a spot of dirt on the ground, and running.
One day Raptor Red follows her sister, and searches the area around where her sister has been pawing. She sniffs around, and to her surprise, she smells her consort!
One day the pack spots a whiptail. Raptor Red notices that the whiptail is very experienced and dangerous, but she couldn't escape in time to avoid being hit by the whiptail, and is hit in by a falling tree, dislocating her knee. While the chicks are trying to escape it, they get hit. Raptor Red's sister gets angry and charges at the whiptail. Then, the sister gets hit three times, each time being hit in a bone or muscle. Now, Raptor Red and the oldest chick are chasing the whiptail up the mountain, and get lost in the snow. They go as far as the can and decide to stop and make a nest. Then, Raptor Red's sister opens her eyes, but doesn't move. The next day Raptor Red and the oldest chick go hunting, and hunt for a whole week.
One day the pack is attacked by deinonyches. Everybody eventually escapes them, except Raptor Red's sister, and the deinonyches kill her.
Near the end of winter, Raptor Red's older niece finds a mate. The niece and her mate walk away, and don't look back.
A little later, Raptor Red finds her mate. Then, they do a conship dance. After the dance, they mate.