Ban'thalos

Ban'thalos is a non-aggressive rare spawn with approximately 387k health (added in patch 4.2) and is located in Mount Hyjal. He can be found circling high above the Sanctuary of Malorne. I have highlighted the area he is found in purple on the map below. I believe that his spawn timer is somewhere between 6 and 17 hours.  You also need to have completed enough quests in Mount Hyjal to have unlocked the daily quests at The Sanctuary of Malorne to be able to see Ban'thalos. The final quest before unlocking the dailies is Aessina's Miracle.

 

This is strictly a TAMABLE HUNTER PET. If Ban'Thalos is killed all he drops is a Crystalline Tear of Loyalty. If your not planning on taming him, don't be a douche. Leave him alone. 

Ban'thalos is a spirit beast. He can only be tamed by hunters that have the top-tier talent from the Beast Mastery tree Beast Mastery which allows the taming of exotic pets.

The NPCScan id for Ban'thalos is 54320.

There are a few different factors that make the Ban'thalos tame particularly challenging. One of them is the height that he flies at. As you can see in the video below, he flies VERY high up. There is no way to attract his attention and tame him from the ground. Another thing that makes this tame tough is the area that he spawns and pats in. Ban'thalos flies directly over a daily quest hub. When he spawns in a LOT of people are going to notice him. Lets face it, when people see rares up they get some kind of crazy blood lust and just have to kill whatever it is. If he doesn't get tamed right away chances are unfortunately he will end up dead. 

Taming:

I've seen several people tame him successfully on the top of the highest tree behind the Sancturay of Malorne. (The easiest way to get in top of the tree is to zoom your camera all the way in and point it straight down.) The trick is to put a freezing trap down, then fly up directly above the tree and tag him when he flies close enough. You should then fall back down on top of the tree without taking any falling damage, hit deterrence and begin your tame the moment you land. Below I have a video of a flawless tame using this exact method. Grats Veranic!

Another taming method is to use some sort of slow-fall and does not require standing at the top of the tree. Dismount in the air, hit him with anything, use your slow fall device, then freezing trap, deterrence, tame. Engineer's can use their parachute cloaks for the slow fall. Non-engineers have several options as well. Evonice's Landin' Pilla is a trinket that will slow your fall speed for 10 seconds and can easily be obtained from a quest in Searing Gorge called "Look at the Size of It!." If you are revered with the Sha'tari Skyguard, they also offer cloaks that will slow your fall speed for 10 seconds. Using a bunch of Noggenfogger Elixir's to try and get the slowing effect as well is an option, but I would only use that as a last resort as that working depends largely on luck.

I'd also like to point out that using Disengage right before hitting the ground seems to mitigate a lot of damage for either method.

Also, for your viewing pleasure in the video below you can see where he patrols and watch a frenzy of hunters attempting to tame him. When the poor hunter in the tree failed, another hunter pulled him from the mountainside and was successful in taming with the help of a second hunter.

New 4.2 Hunter Taming Challenge Rares:

• Ankha, Spirit Beast Cat (Mount Hyjal)
• Ban'Thalos, Spirit Beast Owl (Mount Hyjal)
• Magria, Blue Spirit Beast Cat (Mount Hyjal)
• Anthriss, Yellow Lava Spider (Molten Front)
• Deth'tilac, Purple Lava Spider (Molten Front)
• Kirix, Green Lava Spider (Molten Front)
• Skitterflame, Red Lava Spider (Molten Front)
• Solix, Orange Lava Spider (Molten Front)
• Skarr, Black Metallic Cat (Molten Front)
• Karkin, Metallic Crab (Molten Front)