Now I know where to send that woolly mammoth pelt.

Beekeeper-
Questions keep on coming-
Are ligers mules, or fertile?
Has there been one recorded in modern times that was a natural occurrence?

Shane:

Everything about how Smilodon hunted is a guess, as there is no modern predator that specifically targets pachyderms.

The best guess seems to be this. Smilodon had an extremely thick skull, strong neck and shoulders, and weak lower jaw. Mostly likely he would attack by opening his mouth to expose those long canines, then deeply stab his prey, the shoulder and neck muscles driving the canines home rather than the biting force of the bottom jaw. After deeply wounding his thick skinned target he'd disengage, then follow the bleeding victim until it dropped due to blood loss. This is exactly how Komodo Dragons hunt, and for that matter most sharks operate the same way; seriously wound the prey, then track it until it stops moving.

What we don't know is if they were solitary animals, or hunted as part of a pride. A half-dozen sabertoothed cats all biting at once could probably take down anything they could catch up with. Again, who knows.

Alabamaoutlaw:

You hit the nail on the head. Teamwork always wins in the end, and men and dogs are a team.

Very cool, waiting for that chupacabra mount.

To Sneaky: Two possibilities. He may have been pulling my leg, but I don't think so. Second, he will have to patch together a number of hides from currently defunct bears and make a skull form from scratch, since there is nothing like the giant short-faced bear around today.

Fantastic mount! Give this guy an "A" for effort and execution! Not a museum in the world has a mount this cool in it.

Here's my usual two cents' worth. Odds are that while a Smilodon would have eaten anything made of meat, it probably couldn't have taken a horse because it couldn't have caught one. Most paleontologists think Smilodon's huge canines and bulky build suited it to hunting very large, thick skinned, slower moving animals. It would have gone for young, crippled, or very old Mammoths, Mastodons, rhinos, giant ground sloths, etc. Smilodon would only have been able to prey on extremely unlucky deer, antelope, horses, elk, buffalo, or anything small or fast. After the human hunters wiped out all the really big animals, Smilodon went away, too.

It is said that the massive canines are useless for biting, they were too long to open the jaw past them. They kept the mouth closed and used them as - well...sabers - slashing and stabbing with them.

Bound to be in the Answers section -

Q: "How can you bait a smilodon?"

A: "Remington 870."

Q: "Do you think I can use my .223 to hunt smilodon?"

A: "Shot placement."

That's nice work indeed! The National Museum of Natural History or maybe the Field Museum could use some of those.

Nice mount. Since these critters could go a little over 850 lbs, they were not anything to fool around with. Closest thing we have to them now is the Siberian Tiger?

Dave, does his wife do this work with him? I know of a husband/wife team that works out of WY that does some outstanding award winning work. I just don't know his name, her parents live up the road. Just wondering if this may be the same couple.

Dave you must have had quite a week attending first the SHOT Show, then off to SCI. I heard someone say one full lap at SCI was eight plus miles. Must confess I did not check the veracity of the statement. Spent my time visiting with friends and picking my spots so to speak. As always a great adventure. Am going back to Camaroon for another go at Sitatunga in April, then back to South Africa early July more or less as a chaperone.

Smilodon Populator, is it related to our Alligator? As you wrote, to see the quality and variety of the taxidermy is amazing

Glad man invented blackpowder! We worry about gutting a deer and having a bear come up, even with friends with high-powers helping us.

Imagine facing this thing with a stone tipped spear! Makes you wonder just how up the food chain mankind was 10,000 years ago.

I saw a TV show a while back that featured a Liger. He was only about half grown and weighed nearly 1000 pounds. That brings on a whole new meaning to Here kitty, kitty... As somwhat of a nut over extinct mammals especially Smilodon, I enjoyed seeing the photo. It is much more creative than the digital recreations you see on the History Channel. Very good work! Thanks Dave!

A short faced bear would be interesting, maybe he could use to Brown Bear hides...

The link below shows the afore mentioned Liger. The shot of him with his feet on the platform of a tripod stand makes me pucker a bit...

http://www.naturesafariindia.com/liger.html

I want that mount!

Smilodon hunt'n: 270 v. 3006?

Dave: You, too can have a smilodon trophy (replica) of your very own: check out http://itsophia.com/55843/feature.html

In that day "Couch Potatoes" would have truly been potatoes, a staple food for the indigenous fauna.

The weak did not survive for long back then, might have been a good thing too.

Thanks Dave. That's what I figured. It's truly amazing what a skilled taxidermist can do.

Beekeeper great link. I am somewhat confused by the final weight...90 tonns? Is that weight (tonns) from a different set of measurements (as British)?
The Smilodon mount is fantastic. Now we can settle back and debate guns, loads, and hunt strategy. :-)

Beekeeper,
I believe you are absolutely correct that the Liger is infertile much as the mule (horse/donkey) is infertile.
Dave I'm glad the short nosed bear is extinct, it would render the '06 and 338 obsolete in it's neck of the woods.

ligers are hybrids, like mules. While very, very rare mules are capable of reproducing, most mules we will ever see are sterile.

mules have the size of their horse/mare mother, so logically ligers should have the size of their tiger mother. but they're actually larger. The liger has no growth inhibitor as a result of the union, and accdg to scientists, it theoretically could grow as long as it lives. in the National Geographic show "Supercat" the liger was placed side by side with a Siberian, and the tiger looked like a juvenile.

Smilodon are denser, more "packed" than modern cats. The closest we have is the lion.

Tigons and Ligers get huge. About a couple years ago I recieved the email about these big cats in an animal park in Florida. The tigon has a male tiger crossed with a lioness and the liger is the cross with a male lion and a tigress. I still have that message it looks like the same pics Bee posted.

awsome work!