//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: The Tougarion // Story: The Big Cats of Bakula // by PantheraMan //------------------------------// It's their first night in Bakula, they take shelter in a cave. They try to sleep as comfortably as they can, but to no avail. The cave floor isn't exactly the most comfy, but it'll have to do. While they're sleeping, Rainbow Dash gets the uneasy feeling that they're being watched, and she is right to be wary. The region they're in right now, is full of hunters. A clan of hyenas, brown in color with black stripes, bushy tails, and pointy ears are close to the cave entrance. They sniff the air, hoping to get the scent of prey, but they get the scent of something else. This makes them flee, they're not the only ones on the prowl tonight. A group of huge cats comes into view, these are not ordinary cats, they look like huge cougars, but they're gold in color, and have light brown stripes. They also have tufts of fur at the ends of their tails, and three of them have manes like male lions. They sniff the air, and they don't like what they smell. The scent of humans would scare most animals off, but it doesn't these cats. Instead, it makes them growl. "RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR" This is enough to make the girls wake up, shaking and sweating. "We'd better go farther into the cave." Said Sunset Shimmer who really was wishing she was wearing brown pants. They wander farther into the cave to escape the predators, the felines enter the cave, hot on the trail of the girls. As the girls got farther in the cave, they found something they thought was horrifying. They saw five human bodies, they were all males, but their heads were missing. When they turned around, the cats were close, they found different spots in the cave to hide in. Rainbow Dash hid in a big hole close to where the bodies were, one of the cats was close, very close. Rainbow was now keeping her mouth shut, heart was beating. However, to her horror, the cat found her. "HRAAAAHHH" the cats came together and used their paws and claws to try to get her out while Rainbow was trying to keep herself away from those finger sized claws. Fluttershy decided to come out of her hiding place so she could give them a piece of her mind. "How....DARE YOU!" Shouted Fluttershy making the cats turn to face her. "I'm sorry we came into your den, but we had no idea this place was yours. You don't need to kill people to make them leave, now leave her alone NOW!" Said Fluttershy Fluttershy then used her stare, the very thing that would make anyone nervous, but the cats only saw that as a challenge, and one of them lunged at her. The animal pinned her down with it's paw, but Applejack, using her strength, knocked the cat off of her, and Twilight used her magic to lift the cats while the others got away, Twilight ponied up before putting the cats back down and she flew off, they all got into a tree, the cats weren't giving up that easy, as they now waited at the bottom. The girls decided to stay in the tree until the cats fell asleep. TOUGARION Height: 4 ft tall Length: 11 ft from nose to tip of tail Weight: Males are 420-650 pounds; Females are 200-400 pounds Habitat: Savannas of the Hunter's Deathtrap Social unit: Social The Tougarion is a powerful predator that is feared throughout the Hunter's Deathtrap. Like lions, they live in groups called prides which can have up to an amazing 80 members. Together, they can kill really large prey, like giraffes, young elephants, and even adult rhinos if enough cats are hunting. The females do most of the hunting, since they don'y have manes they're better able to blend in with the environment than the males. When they hunt, many are on the menu. Their diet includes buffalo, hipparion, wildebeest, giant pigs, gazelle, gemsbok, kudu, hartebeest, bontebok, all the other antelope species, giraffids, a weird animal known as Ancylotherium, young elephants, and if there are enough members hunting, even rhinos and hippos. But why live in massive groups anyway? First, in grassland habitats, it's beneficial for lion sized cats to live in groups since in groups, they can actually overcome the problem of hunting prey with little cover by coordinating there activities, and they can face serious competition in grasslands, in the case of the Tougarion, it comepetes with the hyena, Foniacrocuta, which also lives in huge clans and are formidable opponents, a sabertooth cat known as Petriasmilus which is the size of a lion and also hunts in groups, the giant bear Mortemtherium which weighs in at 1,600 pounds, and wild dogs known as Occisorcyon which also hunts in packs. The very social nature has helped Tougarions very much as Petriasmilus hunt during the day to avoid them, they will sometimes kill Mortemtheriums on occasion, Foniacrocuta will only challenge tiny groups, but they avoid the big groups and the males. Seriously, the hyenas will always give up a kill to a male Tougarion, similar to how Spotted Hyenas will give up kills to male lions. The Occisorcyon on the other hand don't thrive in the presence of Tougarions due to the cats literally killing them off. But surely that doesn't require practical armies does it? Well no, but there is one hunter Tougarions hate more than any other: man. When humans first arrived, they hunted the same prey Tougarions hunted, and they killed Tougarion cubs, then white settlers came with guns, and hunted a ridiculous amount of animals including Tougarions. Eventually the cats began to fight back, and formed the practical armies seen today. This made the white man leave, and the years of persecution by humans and the competition with humans has caused Tougarions to have a very high hatred and intolerance of humans. Now, the moment they see a human, they have one instinct, kill. Even if they see a pregnant woman, a baby, or a 3 year old, they kill it. Humans also set fire to the land to make space, making Tougarions hate people even more. So the main reason Tougarions kill humans isn't for food or for sport, but to get rid of the competition. When living with these cats, killing one is actually the worst thing you can do because of the brain, you see, Tougarions have the most highly developed brain in the cat family, the hippacampus, the part of the brain that deals with memories and emotions, is the same size as a human's hippacampus, so these cats have a very good concept of revenge, and if you kill one, you'll have an entire pride of these things coming after you and they won't rest until they've killed you. When thy do kill an animal, they will have a moment of silence if you will, for their prey. After they kill a person or any of their competitors, they will literally take their heads off and place them in front of dens with cubs to send a message to other predators. "Threaten our cubs, you die." The reason the cats in the story above didn't do that is because they didn't have cubs. They are not in the Panthera genus, but their closest cousin is actually the cougar. Cougar fossils have been found in Africa, and when Africa was connected to the Hunters Deathtrap, the early cougars crossed it, and with no lions to comepete with, they exploited the niche lions have. They're in the genus Puma, but unlike the couagr, they can roar, louder than lions, which is important if you live in a huge group. But how do they feed a pride of 80 animals? The females have seperate hunting parties and when they kill something, they eat it. One male will find a small hunting party in case a huge clan of hyenas comes in to try to take the kill. Males can be in coalitions of up to 7 males, and females can have up to four cubs in a litter.