Clamorous Mating. Solitary hunters by nature, bukavacs pair up briefly in the spring. Male bukavacs travel to a female's lair and demonstrate their prowess by unleashing their most powerful bellows. Villages ten miles away from the lair often hear these howls for a week and pray that the creatures don't attack. Once mating has been completed (and groves of trees have been destroyed), the female finds a secluded, shallow lake in which to bury eggs. A bukavac reaches maturity in five years, during which time it and its siblings hunt together. After the bukavacs mature, each finds its own lair. A bukavac is 11 feet long, including its foot-long horns, stands four feet tall, and weighs 4,000 lb. The creature has a natural lifespan of 40 years, but its noise and proclivity to ambush intelligent prey attracts the attention of hunting parties, which considerably shorten its life expectancy.