//------------------------------// // Chapter 9: The Giant Tiger // Story: The Big Cats of Bakula // by PantheraMan //------------------------------// When the sun rose, and they sky turned blue for a new day. The sound of a Red Deer stag bellowing could be heard from a distance. Hearing the noise, Rainbow Dash woke up, seeing more trees than she remembered. She quickly turned around to see more forest where she clearly remembered more wide open spaces, making her realize that they were yet again, in a different place. "YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!!!!!!" shouted Rainbow Dash Her shouting wake everybody else up. "What just happened?" asked Tulu before he took a look around himself. "Where the heck are we now?" asked Kama "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS JUST THE WORST POSSIBLE THING!!!!" shouted Rarity "Grrrrrrrrrr.....I swear, if another boat we build either never gets finished or is destroyed, I'm gonna go crazy!" said Applejack "Calm down, we'll just start over....again. But we'd better eat before we get on to that. You girls stay here, Tulu, Kama, Rainbow Dash, with me." Said Banda "Wait, you want me to come with you?" asked Rainbow Dash "Well I did say I'd take you with me in case I'd need you to use your speed to confuse anything trying to take a kill. For all we know, there could be demon sabertooths out here." Answered Banda "AW YEAH!!" cheered Rainbow Dash They went on their way, Tulu once again was on the trail of prey. They found a dead carcass of animal in a meadow. But this animal was strange, it had hooves, white fur, was really massive, but it wasn't a bovine as it had fur on it's nose, and weirdest yet, it had a large "boss" on its head. the boss was flat, but thick, and made of keratin, same thing rhino horns and fingernails are made out of. Banda could tell that this animal died of old age, as their was no sign of disease. But before they could get to the kill, a pack of wild dogs came into the meadow and fed on the carcass. These dogs were about the size of German Shepards, had pointy ears, bushy tails, thick fur coats, white underbellies, were orange on top, had thick black stripes going down the backs and tails, and there eyes were light gold, and this pack had thirty five of them. "Well this is going to be fun." Said Banda "Why?" asked Rainbow Dash "Simple, scavenging is more fun when you can chase dogs or hyenas away from carcasses." Answered Banda Banda prepared himself to charge at the dogs, Rainbow Dash was now eager to see the event, however, one of the dogs lifted it's head up , faced the opposite direction, smelled the air, and made a peculiar sound. "ROM ROM ROM ROM ROM" The rest of the dogs, after hearing the call, ran off as quickly as a gazelle from a cheetah. "What the.." Said Kama "Okay, whatever animal managed to scare them off, I'm so gonna..." Said Banda Before he could finish that sentence,a tiger came out from the woods, but this was no ordinary tiger. This tiger was massive, how massive you ask? The tiger was taller than a horse, had paws as wide as a man's chest, in length, it was lnger than a couch, the head was wider than a man's chest, and it weighed at least more than a ton, and it was a male in his prime. "Get my tail kicked!!" said Banda The gang had their eyes wide open, jaws really wide open, and didn't dare move a muscle. The tiger opened it's jaws, revealing the canines which were as long as a human hand. The tiger sank his fangs into the flesh, but before he did anything else, he sniffed the air, and realized the gang was right there with him. The tiger released his grip, got his claws out, which were longer than human fingers, and he roared. "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" The roar was as loud as thunder, and was more than enough to make the gang run off. They hid behind some bushes, and the tiger then dragged the carcass that weighed three tons off into the forest. "Let's follow it." Said Kama "What! Kama, are you crazy? Did you not see the size of that thing?" asked Banda "Yes, but I doubt it will finish that carcass in one sitting, if we can just get some of that meat while it isn't looking." Answered Kama "Kama, if you think I'm gonna get that tigers attention, you're out of your mind! I don't want that thing coming after me, even if I do have super speed." Said Rainbow Dash This did not deter Kama, as she went straight ahead to where the tiger went. "We'd better just go with her, just to make sure she doesn't get herself killed." Said Banda They follow the tiger to his den, They hide behind some nearby bushes to stay out of sight. "BOOW BOOOW BOOW" Three cubs came out of the den, and they started gorging on the carcass, and the adult laid down on his belly. "Cubs? I thought male tigers had nothing to do with raising cubs." Said Rainbow Dash "Well Twilight did say something about one male tiger rearing his young after the mother died, remember?" asked Tulu "Oh....right." Replied Rainbow Dash As the cubs were eating the carcass, the male tiger lifted his head up, got up on his front paws, as if something wasn't right, and indeed, something was very wrong. A huge male Short-Faced Bear came into view after smelling the scent of the carcass. The bear was six feet at the shoulder, obviously had a short face, and also weighed more than a ton. The bear realized it was in the presence of a male tiger, and actually tried to back off. "RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR" The tiger was having none of it, the bear had come to close to the cubs, and without hesitation, the tiger charged at the bear. The bear, knowing it couldn't outrun the tiger, reared up on it's hind legs. However, the tiger did the same thing, and both began to duke it out like heavyweight boxers. The tiger had quicker reactions, and was able to get more hits in. Seeing this as the chance to get some meat, Kama and Banda quickly ran up to the carcass, and Kama began to butcher it, while Banda took it back to Tulu and Rainbow Dash. The tiger managed to give the bear a nasty scratch across the face, while the bear gave the tiger some scratches on the shoulder and back. Both were covering still clawing and biting each other, ut then the tiger got one last blow with a scratch to the nose, the bear finally had enough, and retreated. "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" The tiger turned back around, only to see Banda and Kama at the carcass, the tiger charged at them and they were wise to run away. "YIPE! NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE!!!!" Said both Banda and Tulu while they were running away. Back at the river, the girls were just sitting there, waiting for the hunters to return. However, they ended up being accompanied by a bunch of animals. These included elk, wood bison, aurochs, tarpan horses, mastodons, animals of the same species as the dead one the others found, and even a giant ground sloth. The sloth was huge, bigger than a bison, the size of a hippotamus, had long arms with huge claws, and big, thick tails. The aurochs, smelling the girls, charged at them without hesitation, and forced them into a tree. "Why is it that in every place we go, we end up going up a tree to get away from something?" asked Sunset Shimmer "I don't know Sunset." Answered Twilight "Though it's weird, these guys chase us up a tree, but elephants, well most of them anyway, just leave us alone." Said Applejack "That would be because people around here don't hunt elephants because they're sacred but aurochs aren't sacred, and that bull lost his eye from a human hunt." Said Pinkie Pie At this point, the bull Pinkie mentioned just looked at them like "How the heck did she know that?" "It's Pinkie Pie, don't question it." Said Fluttershy In the surrounding cover, a tigress was stalking. Her chosen target was the ground sloth. Once she got close enough, she charged, causing the animals except for the mastodons to flee. The sloth was too slow, so it reared upon it's hind legs, ready to fight back, but the tigress used it's power to leap onto the sloth, knock it over, and bite the throat, crushing the windpipe, and then releasing it's grip when the sloth was finally dead. The tigress was also massive, not as large as the male, but large and powerful enough to even make Applejack feel scared. The tiger took notice of the girls in the tree, and gave them a look they didn't like one bit. "RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR" "That's all yours miss, all yours." Said Applejack Then a white dog with pointy ears and a bushy tail came right up to the tigress, and amazingly, the tigress didn't harm it. But the tigress dragged to kill to a secluded spot to eat it, and the dog just followed it. Knowing it was safe to come down, the girls got out of the tree, and not long after, Banda, Tulu, Kama, and Rainbow Dash had finally arrived with food. "We're back!" said Tulu "What were you doing in the tree?" asked Banda "A herd of thos aurochs chased us up there, then a huge tiger came along and killed a big sloth thing, and that tiger even made Applejack nervous." Answered Rarity "You encountered a giant tiger too?" asked Rainbow Dash "So did you?" asked Fluttershy "Well, we've got quite the story to tell." Said Kama Applejack made another fire, the meat was cooked, Banda told the story of their encounter with the king of the forest, and after they ate, it was time to build another boat, which everyone was hoping would be successful for Applejack's sake. GIANT TIGER Height: 8 ft tall at the shoulder Length: 15 feet from the nose to the tip of the tail Weight: Males are from 1,600 to 2,500 pounds while females are from 990 to 1,500 pounds, but the biggest males can be up to 3, 400 pounds. The Giant Tiger is the biggest cat in all of Bakula. They are at the top of the food chain, with nothing to prey on them. But why are they so big? Their size is a way of dealing with the super intense competition with other predators. They compete with leopards, Short-Faced Bears, Asiatic Black Bears, Brown Bears, weird big cats called Krises, Eurasian Lynx, and wild dogs called Gongers. Giant Tigers dominate most of their competitors comepletley, in fact, Gongers will run at the first sight of a tiger, and they even have a warning call for tigers, and they don't really thrive when tigers are around. Their worst enemy is the short-faced bear. Male short-faced bears will follow juvenile tigers and tigresses to take their kills, but they avoid male tigers at all costs, as male tigers are larger and more powerful. Female bears will stay clear of tigers, and will go to areas with few tigers when they have cubs. While bears like to avoid male tigers, there are the occasional fights between the two species, in which tigers usually win. However, despite their ferocity, they have a caring side. Male tigers can be seen spending time with their families, and even raising the cubs if the mother dies. They also have formed a symbiotic relationship with Bakulan Hunting Dogs. The dogs will track down prey with their sense of smell and lead the tigers to prey, then the tiger will do the killing, both get a meal and in return, the tiger protects the dog from other predators. As for diet, these tigers hunt ground sloths, deer, elk, moose, aurochs, horses, bison, Umakas (the unusual herbivore in the chapter), young mastodons, bears, just about anything they can get their teeth and claws on. They hunt by ambush, they stalk their prey until they get close enough to give chase, and Giant Tigers have lots of endurance muscle, allowing them to last longer in a chase. Then they charge, with an animal like a ground sloth, they use their power and size to get the animal down on the ground, and then crush the widpipe. With an animal like a deer, they literally crush the spinal cord with their bone-crushing jaws. Like other tigers, they're solitary, with males having larger territories than females and overlap with those of females, and tigers are very territorial, and have fierce battles over territory, even killing other tigers sometimes.