KALAMONGA: A LOST WORLD

[smedz]

 Far off in the Pacific Ocean, north of Papua New Guinea, lies a large piece of land called Kalamonga. The landscape is a mosaic of tall grasses and jungles similar to that of the Terai Arc of Asia. Full of grasses, fruits, and many other plant species, and with all the green bounty there are many herbivores. Kalamonga was once dominated by marsupials. However, landbridges with Asia, North America, and South America allowed many placental mammals to outcompete most marsupials so now Kalamonga is home to a mix of fauna from four continents. Now for the fauna list: 

Mega-herbivores  
1. Jungle Mammoth 
2. Axe-Horn 
3. Leopold's Ground Sloth 
4. Kalamongan Hippopotamus 
5. Spear-Horned Rhinoceros 

Common Prey 
1. Sambar 
2. Swamp Deer 
3. White-Tailed Deer 
4. Red Muntjac 
5. Serow 
6. Banteng 
7. Gaur 
8. Giant Water Buffalo 
9. Malayan Tapir   
10. Wild Boar 
11. Bearded Pig 
12. Dromornis 
13. Rhea 
14. Jungle Horse  
15. Glyptodon 
16. Capybara 

Predators 

1. Colossal Tiger 
2. Makomba 
3. Smilodon 
4. Thylacoleo 
5. Eye-Chested Bear 
6. Tree Bear 
7. Westfall's Dog 
8. Saltwater Crocodile 

[OldGreenGrolar]

That is a good story. I will be waiting for the biodata of the animals. I guess it is similar to Beluka.

I guess the tree bear is a bit like the koala or a sun bear. The colossal tiger might be similar to the giant tiger of Beluka?

[smedz]

Colossal Tiger    

Weight: 2,000-4,500 lbs for males; 1,000-3,600 lbs 

Length: 20 ft from nose to tip of tail 

Height: 7 ft tall on all fours 

Behavior: Colossal tigers have large territories, those of males being larger than the females. Each tiger's range is exclusive, yet all the females on one area tend to be related to one another. Like their Asian counterparts, they love the water and on a hot day they'll cool off in a river, lake, or any other body of water. When giving birth, females will lay down in a cave to bring their cubs into the world and afterwords, she will move them deeper into the cave to better hide them from predators. Floater males are male tigers that roam in the territories of dominant males if they cannot find a vacant home range of their own and unlike in Panna National Park, India, floaters have no chances of breeding with females due to the dominant males aggression towards them, which he uses to remind them who's the boss. Unlike their Asian counterparts which in most of their range are most nocturnal due to human activities, Colossal tigers hunt both day and night just like the tigers at Ranthambore National Park, India. When hunting they stay low to the ground and get as close as possible to the chosen target and charge from cover, and either knock the prey off balance with their weight or they use their powerful forelimbs to bring it down. Their diet includes giant buffalo, gaur, banteng, axe-horns, spear-horned rhinos, kalamongan hippos, leopold's ground sloths, young mammoths, eye-spotted bears, saltwater crocodiles, and ocassionally sambar, with the wild cattle being their favorite prey items. With larger prey items like rhinos, giant sloths, and hippos they bite into the throat, crushing the trachea which causes them to die of asphyxiation and smaller prey are killed with a bite to the back of the neck or crushing the skull or sometimes even snapped the spine. If they're lucky they'll scavenge, which sometimes means they take carcasses from smaller predators and due to their massive size and power, they will even take a kill from a large group of Smilodon. Colossal tigers mark their territories by scratching on trees, scraping the ground and scent marking rocks and other objects in their domain. 

Strength: The strength of Colossal Tigers is legendary. A tribal chief saw one kill a juvenile mammoth and drag for over two miles. Big game hunters in the area that were attacked by the big cats in their cars told of how the tigers would tear the tops of their vehicles off after biting them, one even grabbed the section between the windshield and door window and flipped it on it's side when it tried dragging it. Another flipped a car over in it while people were inside of it and dragged it over a quarter mile. One even bit into a car and help it in place while the driver pressed the gas pedal. 

Unique Attributes: The huge size evolved as a response to the competition and the large number of big herbivores in Kalamonga. As they got bigger, their slow-twitch muscle also grew, allowing them to last as long in a chase as their smaller cousins. Colossal tigers are classified as a "king predator" which is a terrestrial predator that's massive and when humans try hunting them or taking hunting their prey at great rates, they become more aggressive to people and kill them on sight in response because they view it as a challenge. In other words, they have an "I bow to no one" attitude. 

[OldGreenGrolar]

/\ I guess they are giant versions of Bengal tigers. They are heavier than the Beluka giant tigers.

[smedz]

The First War 

    Ages ago, during the times of the Roman Empire and the Ancient Egyptians, the first people arrived to Kalamonga. They arrived by boats from mainland Asia, with them they brought dogs, spears, shields, and their traditions. Upon first glance they saw a large bounty of big game to hunt, but then they encountered Kalamonga's top predator. Their first encounters with Colossal tigers were filled with sweat, shaking, and fleeing. There were at the time, two tribes. The Oolas, who believed man should exist mutualistically with nature while using it to survive at the same time, and then there were the Tanguks, the tribe who though man must dominate every living thing and that the land belonged to them. This started conflict between the to tribes and brutal fights would occur. The Tanguks killed several rhinos, axe-horns, hippos, ground sloths, and mammoths, and then, they began hunting colassal tigers simply to dominate them, but instead of becoming more fearful of the Tanguks, the tigers did the opposite. They fought back by killing any Tanguk they found, even killing several men with powerful paw strikes. Eventually, the Tanguks became scarce, and the tigers left them alone. Due to the conflicts, both tribes now ere much smaller, but the Tanguks now knew they could not act recklessly with nature, but rather respect it.