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Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to a special taster of our new

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premium only story. We hope you like it. Hell yo, Hello,

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I'm Josephine and this is the Animal Tales podcast, home

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to over four hundred and fifty stories written just for you.

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Our Friday story is especially for our Premium subscribers only.

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Harry and Lewis are Premium members from Maryland, USA, and

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they would like a story with saber toothed tigers and

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a fox. Don't forget to listen to the animal facts

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after the story to learn more about these creatures. For now,

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it's time to sit back and get comfy, because it's

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time to begin saber toothed siblings. Long long ago, in

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a place that would one day be known as Florida,

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tooth sabertoothed tigers ruled the land. It was the age

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of the megafauna. Huge wooly mammoths, lumbering giant sloths, and

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terrifying terror birds roamed to the plains, as well as

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herds of camels, horses, and bison. Although it was the

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ice age for much of North America, the glaciers didn't

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reach this far south. Instead, the area was made up

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of scrubland prairie and rocky foothills. To survive there, it

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helped to be big, strong, and tough, which was why

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the pair of sabertoothed tigers did so well. Harry and

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Lois were siblings, meaning they were cubs from the same litter.

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They'd found that sticking together was much better than being alone,

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so they traveled as a pair, rarely out of the

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other's sight. When they worked together, prey didn't stand a chance.

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When other predators tried to move into their territory, they

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were quickly driven away. Even the humans that occasionally stopped

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to set up camp didn't hang around for long. It

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was one such camp site recently abandoned that Harry and

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Lois found one morning before the sun had even risen

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above the horizon. It stinks of humans here, Harry said.

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They haven't been gone long. Good ridance, Lois replied. They're

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always so noisy. They scare all the prey away. It's

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all so scary. What animals they're willing to go after,

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Harry said, do you remember when they attacked that cave bear?

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A cave bear. They're either foolish or they don't feel fear.

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I don't care, Lois replied, as long as they leave

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us alone. But if they did try to attack us, well,

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now that would be foolish. They were just about to

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move on when Lois saw they were being watched from

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amongst the grass. She snarled, thinking one of the humans

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had returned, but calmed down when she saw it was

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just a skinny gray fox. The saber tooths had nothing

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to fear from a fox, and they'd have forgotten it

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was even there if it hadn't rushed forward to snatch

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up a piece of animal hide that the humans had

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left behind. It disappeared back amongst the grass just as

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quickly as it had appeared. A fox wouldn't normally get

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that close to us, observed Lois. I think it's getting

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harder for them to find food, Harry replied, speaking of which,

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let's go catch us some breakfast. Lois agreed, happy to

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leave the stench of humans behind them. Breakfast turned out

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to be a bison, not an easy meal to catch,

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but easier when there were two of you. Half Way

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through their meal. Lois sat up suddenly, saying, what was that?

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It's the fox, Harry said, she's been following us. She

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must be hoping for some of our meal. Lois located

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where the fox was watching them from. It really was

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a skinny creature. She tore off a chunk of meat

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and tossed it in the fox's direction. It was snatched

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up instantly. What did you do that for, said Harry

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with a disapproving look. Lois shrugged. She was hungry, she replied,

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we can spare a little. She expected her brother to

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complain further, but surprisingly he said nothing. If you'd like

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to hear more, please join our premium service. You can

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find out how in the description. The premium service means

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suggestion into a future tale. I look forward to seeing

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you there.