Saber Toothed Tiger

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

It has been suggested that this cat would stab its prey
and wait for it to bleed to death. This is unheard of as a
strategy in the wild.

This is not totally bizarre. For example, Komodo dragons
wound their prey, but don't kill them. Their saliva has
some deadly bacteria which would kill the prey in a few
days. The dragons smell rotting flesh from many kilometers
of distance and go eat them.

There are other animals that just wound the prey and let
them die on their own, being followed by the predator until
dead. This is a safety instinct. If its not yet dead, it may
still in its death throws strike back. For that matter,
that's how MAN hunted, too. Bow hunters today still do that.

For the sabertooth cats (who aren't "tigers" in actuality),
Walking With [Prehistoric] Beasts suggests that its not just
bleeding to death.

Once pinned down by the tremendous forward body weight from
those huge shoulders, the strike with the sabers happens
right in the throat to not only start the animal bleeding,
but to also crush the larynx and windpipe. the prey doesn't
bleed to death in hours, but dies (or at least goes
unconscious) of asphyxiation in about a minute or two.

there are lots of space in the upper jaw, implying a
significant amount of nerves leading to/from the nose
and whiskers, so they "felt" there way to the right
point to strike.

A paleontologist described this form of killing in the
"making of" special and its repeated in a sidebar in the
book.

Joe