Page 20

Steph and Daniel pulled up to Fergus’s cabin. For a moment they stayed in the buggy surveying the nearby area. Satisfied it was safe enough, they disembarked.

Once inside, Steph was again greeted by the carnal mess that littered the floor. It wasn’t so bad this time. She was more ready for it, even the smell. Unfortunately for Daniel, he had no prior experience with the mess and was, or so it looked to Steph, working hard to hold down what was in his throat.

“So what are your thoughts?”

Daniel asked.

“Surely you have come across animal attacks in your line of work before?”

Steph glanced sideways at the man. She wondered what he knew of her line of work and quite where he’d got his information from. Maybe he’d meant nothing by it.

“I have,”

Steph conceded, looking around.

“What causes it? Just a rogue animal looking for an easy meal?”

Steph looked at the floor. For the first time, she really took in the pattern of footprints and smears of red. The lion’s prints did not go deep into the cabin although whatever area the struggle – and Steph assumed it must have been brief – had taken place in was a mess. There were objects on the floor, claw marks and shreds of flesh. Had it started eating straight away?

“Sometimes,”

Steph finally replied, not looking up.

“Although it is hard to consider humans as an easy meal; animals aren’t stupid. There is an understanding among most that humans often lead to their death. Years of being on the wrong end of a pointy stick or a bullet will usually instil that. Or the parent does.”

“Nature versus nurture in the animal kingdom?”

“I suppose so,”

Steph replied, slowly walking back out the door.

“How would this animal have learnt to fear humans and how far back would genetics be able to reach in terms of knowledge, if they play any part at all?”

“Which was why it attacked?”

“Possibly.”

Steph stood on the porch decking and looked around. It was open. Too open. She then looked down as a board creaked underfoot. It was loose. A couple were loose in the same spot. She looked up.

“Often something causes an animal to go after humans. It could be an injury, which makes them unable to hunt faster, more aggressive prey. It could be a territorial thing. It could be a lack of learning opportunities from species’ elders. There was a load of delinquent teenage elephants in Asia once. Males. All the older males had been killed and the younger ones never learnt how to behave. They went around raping and murdering like pissed-up pirates. You wouldn’t think it of an elephant.”

“So you think our cave lion might be a delinquent?”

“It’s possible,”

Steph replied. She then went inside and fetched a chair which she put on the decking just slightly away from the small overhang of the roof. She climbed up.

“My personal worry is the idea of territory.”

“What do you mean?”

Daniel asked.

“Well, you have an awful lot of large predators in here that usually have large territories. Territories for most of them, each larger than the one area of land you have provided them, despite your generosity.”

“I didn’t decide on the land size!”

Daniel replied holding his hands up.

“I am just the palaeontologist!”

“My point is,”

Steph continued.

“There will be fierce competition. Adaptations will have to be made. Otherwise, at least one of your species of animal won’t survive.”

“So?”

“So I suspect that you have a bunch of apex and near-apex predators who are acutely aware that they might just have to become desperate… except maybe the cave bear.”

“You saw it?”

Daniel asked, his face lighting up.

“I did,”

Steph replied, studying the roof.

She found what she was looking for. There were scuff marks on the roof felt. Along the sides, where the roof was edged with wood, there were clean-looking grooves consistent with claws.

“It seems this was an ambush,”

Steph replied, getting down and surveying the area once more. The word ambush caused Daniel to look around too, craning his neck this way and that in rapid sweeping motions.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean the cave lion was waiting on the roof. Seemingly, it waited until Fergus went to open the door, dropped down and hammered its surprised victim in through their own doorway. There was a brief struggle in which Fergus was killed and the lion began eating. Quickly.”

“Why quickly? Ah, don’t answer. You already have.”

“I get that the animal needed to eat quickly but it cannot have eaten the whole body. Not in a short space of time. That’s the part I don’t get.”

“Well, I might have an answer to that,”

Daniel replied.

“We have seen the odd carcass that has been dragged halfway up trees.”

“You mean, it hides its kills?”

Steph asked.

“Like a leopard? Did cave lions do that?”

Daniel shrugged.

“There is no evidence I know to suggest they used trees, but it is possible they hid their kills. That’s not uncommon for any predator to do, right?”

“If they can’t eat quickly enough or defend a kill.”

“Right.”

“So if that is the case, I assume that the lion is trying to outmanoeuvre the bears,”

Steph said, running a hand through her hair.

“Well,”

Daniel said, puffing out his cheeks momentarily.

“Even a full-sized brown bear is a match for the lion… the cave bear is something else but…”

“But I get the picture,”

Steph replied.

There was silence for a moment.

“Does the lion have a preferred tree?”

Steph asked.

“For what?”

“For hiding kills. I mean was it the same tree you have seen these carcasses in each time?”

“Not me but Davey and Michael observed where,”

Daniel replied.

“They just said it was not far from where the beavers were.”

Steph nodded. She had too many things to consider now. Things were exciting – danger was excitement’s shadier partner – but a lot to handle, nonetheless.

“I suppose that’s where we should head then,”

Steph replied.