Sabre-Toothed Cat
From Zoo Tycoon Wiki
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| Sabre-tooth cat | |
| Official expansion(s): | Dinosaur Digs Extinct Animals |
| Animal type: | Big cat |
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Conservation status: | Extinct |
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Biome: | Tundra (1)
Boreal forest (2) |
| Diet: | Meat |
| Performs in shows?: | No |
The Sabre-Toothed Cat is one of the adoptable animals in Zoo Tycoon: Dinosaur Digs and Zoo Tycoon 2: Extinct Animals. The Sabre-tooth cat is also known as Smilodon or Sabre-toothed tiger. The species in the game, smilodon fatalis, roamed throughout North and South America. It lived alongside other species such as the Jefferson's ground sloth, American lion, dire wolf, Imperial mammoth, short-faced bear, as well as species of bison and horse. Bison consisted of most of Smilodon's diet. Smilodon's most prominent feature are their long canines, hence the name smilodon fatalis, meaning "deadly knife-tooth". Its mouth could open to 120 degrees, whereas the modern lion could only open to 65 degrees. Despite the menacing appearance of its terrifying mouth, Smilodon's bite force was rather weak and its teeth were very delicate. The teeth could snap off easily if smilodon were holding a struggling prey animal in its mouth. In the game, Smilodon is most commonly striped, but is occasionally spotted, white, and even jet-black. In real life, if Smilodon had any markings at all, they would most likely be spots, best camouflaging it in it's environment. However, the white and jet black fur colors can be explained as leucism and melanism respectively, these two being recessive traits that cause reduced pigmentation in the case of the former, and an overabundance of melanin in the latter.
It is believed that smilodon would sneak up on its prey very quietly, pounce on it, and bring it down with great strength. Then it would deliver a slashing bite to the throat, killing the prey very quickly, so that it could eat as much as possible before other animals came along and tried to steal the kill. Some believe that Smilodon may have lived in groups. This would benefit their survival by ensuring that injured members of the group could be fed by other members until they recovered. Also, Smilodon cubs would be better protected in a pack than with only their mother. A pack of smilodon would probably be one of the few things that could kill a short-faced bear.
[edit] In Zoo Tycoon
The Smilodon was available in the Dinosaur Digs expansion pack. It resides in the tundra biome. However, it requires large amounts of gray and brown stone. Its preferred foliage is the Arctic bush.This version is unrealistically powerful and can easily bring down animals much larger than itself including Wooly Mammoths and Giant ground sloths.
[edit] In Zoo Tycoon 2
The Smilodon's favorite biome is boreal but can tolerate tundra, tropical rainforest, grassland, savannah and sometimes scrub, just like the South American sabre-toothed cat. There are 3 variants: One similar to the main skin, but with spots on the back instead of stripes, one that is white with blue eyes, similar to a white tiger, and one that is black with green eyes, similar to a black leopard or jaguar, though at closer look, it is actually dark purple, with black stripes and spots. Even if a parent with a color variant mates, it is rare to have one of the three colors.
