Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to a special taster of our new
premium only story. We hope you like it. Hell yo, Hello,
I'm Josephine and this is the Animal Tales podcast, home
to over four hundred and fifty stories written just for you.
Our Friday story is especially for our Premium subscribers only.
Harry and Lewis are Premium members from Maryland, USA, and
they would like a story with saber toothed tigers and
a fox. Don't forget to listen to the animal facts
after the story to learn more about these creatures. For now,
it's time to sit back and get comfy, because it's
time to begin saber toothed siblings. Long long ago, in
a place that would one day be known as Florida,
tooth sabertoothed tigers ruled the land. It was the age
of the megafauna. Huge wooly mammoths, lumbering giant sloths, and
terrifying terror birds roamed to the plains, as well as
herds of camels, horses, and bison. Although it was the
ice age for much of North America, the glaciers didn't
reach this far south. Instead, the area was made up
of scrubland prairie and rocky foothills. To survive there, it
helped to be big, strong, and tough, which was why
the pair of sabertoothed tigers did so well. Harry and
Lois were siblings, meaning they were cubs from the same litter.
They'd found that sticking together was much better than being alone,
so they traveled as a pair, rarely out of the
other's sight. When they worked together, prey didn't stand a chance.
When other predators tried to move into their territory, they
were quickly driven away. Even the humans that occasionally stopped
to set up camp didn't hang around for long. It
was one such camp site recently abandoned that Harry and
Lois found one morning before the sun had even risen
above the horizon. It stinks of humans here, Harry said.
They haven't been gone long. Good ridance, Lois replied. They're
always so noisy. They scare all the prey away. It's
all so scary. What animals they're willing to go after,
Harry said, do you remember when they attacked that cave bear?
A cave bear. They're either foolish or they don't feel fear.
I don't care, Lois replied, as long as they leave
us alone. But if they did try to attack us, well,
now that would be foolish. They were just about to
move on when Lois saw they were being watched from
amongst the grass. She snarled, thinking one of the humans
had returned, but calmed down when she saw it was
just a skinny gray fox. The saber tooths had nothing
to fear from a fox, and they'd have forgotten it
was even there if it hadn't rushed forward to snatch
up a piece of animal hide that the humans had
left behind. It disappeared back amongst the grass just as
quickly as it had appeared. A fox wouldn't normally get
that close to us, observed Lois. I think it's getting
harder for them to find food, Harry replied, speaking of which,
let's go catch us some breakfast. Lois agreed, happy to
leave the stench of humans behind them. Breakfast turned out
to be a bison, not an easy meal to catch,
but easier when there were two of you. Half Way
through their meal. Lois sat up suddenly, saying, what was that?
It's the fox, Harry said, she's been following us. She
must be hoping for some of our meal. Lois located
where the fox was watching them from. It really was
a skinny creature. She tore off a chunk of meat
and tossed it in the fox's direction. It was snatched
up instantly. What did you do that for, said Harry
with a disapproving look. Lois shrugged. She was hungry, she replied,
we can spare a little. She expected her brother to
complain further, but surprisingly he said nothing. If you'd like
to hear more, please join our premium service. You can
find out how in the description. The premium service means
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get bonus stories, and we guarantee to turn your animal
suggestion into a future tale. I look forward to seeing
you there.