Marsupial Panther By Sheather888 Watch

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Native to an alternate Earth where the asteroid never killed the dinosaurs, the marsupial panther is a large predatory metatherian mammal that has nevertheless become an apex predator as a result of a different, smaller asteroid which in this timeline strikes Australia in the Miocene, killing off large reptiles and giving small mammal predators the chance to grow big.



It s the largest of the felidictids and the largest living marsuguolodont, growing as large as a lioness - up to 300 pounds and six and half feet in length, excluding the long balancing tail. A very powerful carnivore, it occurs across most of Australia and New Guinea except the driest interior desert regions where the grass is not tall enough to afford ambushing cover. It is very adaptable to different habitat, from plains to forest, and at least three subspecies are recognized. The smallest, just 60 to 150 pounds, is endemic to the rainforests of New Guinea and is predominately black in color with golden markings of varying prominence. The largest hunt the dry plains of the outback and across southern Australia, with tawny to golden coats and faded spots that are absent in some populations. Intermediate is the northern Australian race which is illustrated above. This variety - the nominate subspecies - is a leopard-like hunter of the savannah, often relying on patchy tree cover to drop down on its prey, and is often considered the most beautiful, with bright golden pelage marked with bold black and white spots and stripes. Weighing 180 - 250, pounds, its size falls between the averages of the other subspecies. All races exhibit manes on the back of the neck, made up of wiry black and white bristle-like hairs that stand up erect when the animal is excited, serving to make it appear larger and more intimidating to rivals. These are most impressive in the male.



Marsupial panthers rely on a two-fold hunting strategy to take down their prey. They first pounce and grip their victim in a deadly embrace, digging in the sharply recurved claws on their forearms, including a large hooked dewclaw on each wrist, and then deliver a bite to the throat with hypertrophied dagger-shaped canine teeth which are especially long in the upper jaw but which are otherwise hidden when the animal is at rest under the soft tissue of its lips. Tooth size varies in correlation with body size; the fangs of the large mammal-hunting southern subspecies can reach six inches, while the small New Guinea race has teeth only half this size, though in relation to its body size, its teeth are actually larger.



These predators prey mostly upon the large mammal herbivores known as mirotheres - pawed, ungulate-like trunked mammals with pouches - and their large teeth are an adaptation to quickly kill prey animals which are much larger than themselves. Though they will also ambush medium-sized ornithopod dinosaurs whenever the opportunity presents itself, these very fast animals quickly outpace them at a run and so must be caught by an ambush at close range. The New Guinean subspecies has a broader diet and frequently targets quite small prey in the form of marsupial monkeys, lizards and birds. They may hunt by stalking on the ground or by climbing and dropping from trees - all subspecies will take kills off the ground to avoid having it stolen by competitors if any high perch is available, such as a tree or a rock outcropping, though this may be an opportunity not available to the southernmost race over much of its treeless domain.



All subspecies are highly territorial with males controlling large ranges overlapping with multiple females. Males are very intolerant of one another at all times and will battle fiercely where they clash if one does not back down quickly. Females, being up to one third smaller than males, are more avoidant of both one another and males except during estrus, when they seek out brief companionship, typically for only one night - to advertise their fertility, females call for males with a loud caterwaul through the night. The female gives birth to as many as ten tiny, poorly-developed but has only four nipples in her pouch; the infants that do not reach a nipple and latch on do not survive. The cubs stay in the pouch for four months before they begin to venture out; they are not fully weaned for up to a year and a half, and rely on their mother to provide them food during this period even though they may successfully kill some small prey at as young an age as six months. Hunting behavior is not fully innate; while the young instinctively chase and pounce on anything that moves, including each other and their mother, the cubs must learn proper efficient killing technique through trial and error. The mother does not directly demonstrate this to her offspring, and they do not seem to learn by watching her. Rather, she simply shares her own food with them until they figure it out on their own, hopefully before she comes back into estrus and is inclined at that time to drive them out of her territory. Mother panthers communicate to their cubs with a series of whines, mews and coughs, and the cubs reply with bird-like chirps. Adults, except females in heat, are mostly silent at all other times except conflict when they are capable - and very inclined towards - a high-volume scream that is carried on until the conflict is finished.



Young panthers lack the bristle manes of the adults, only sporting a small cowlick of hair between the shoulder blades. Their manes do not develop until the age of two to three years. Additionally, they lack the white patches on the backs of their ears and above or below their eyes which are sported by mature individuals. These differences are clearly adaptations to permit dispersal of the young from their mother's territory at adolescence without risking their being killed by territorial adults on neighboring lands. The adults appear to rely on these markings as cues to recognize each other at a distance and either prepare to fight or avoid one another - adults do not react nearly as aggressively to juveniles without eyebrow markings and manes as to mature specimens, usually allowing them to pass through their territories without harassment.

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Published : Jul 10, 2018