I thought that part of the "King of the beasts" criteria was that you would normally assume it was harmless or at the very least non-aggressive? For example, ye olde Giant Sponge sounds like a glorified decoration and utterly harmless until it becomes enraged(?) and charges() dwarves and crushes them to death.
Nope. GCS, Cave Dragons, and Giant Dingoes are all currently contenders for the Land King on the Wiki, and they're anything
but harmless/non-aggressive.
Speaking of which, I think I found a beast worthy of both King of Land AND Sky.
Allow me to present the
Giant Mantis.This is what one can do. (Note: I
did try to put one alone against a pack of giant dingoes and a flock of giant kea. It usually managed to take out one or two or at the very least wound one, but it didn't stand a chance.)
The thing can literally rip apart other kings of beasts, both previous and current on the wiki, like nothing unless they manage to get lucky. Also, note that it's barely larger than a python, so only the GCS is smaller than it out of the beasts I put it against.
And on the rare occasion that more than one shows up...Well,
just look.It seems to be a guarantee that, again, unless the pack/flock gets lucky, a small swarm of three giant mantises against a small pack/flock of giant dingoes or giant kea
will come out victorious with at least one survivor.
The best part is that, like giant kea, it can fly into your fortress almost unopposed unless you've got a good military at the ready.