the dead of winter during a reportedly bad year for his traditional prey,
was staring death in the face. Under the circumstances, he had no choice
but to make an extraordinary accommodation. Despite the fact that he had
been taught to hunt wild game and had been using those methods and
prey species to feed himself ever since leaving his mother, the tiger had,
in only a matter of days, developed an entirely different hunting strategy
and killing technique, both of which were perfectly suited to a food
source with which he had no prior experience as prey. Apparently,
necessity is the mother of invention for tigers, too.
Hunger and revenge are not desires that human beings usually
experience at the same time, but these primordial drives appeared to
merge in the mind and body of this tiger such that one evolved almost
seamlessly into the other. The killing and consumption of Markov may
have accidentally satisfied two unrelated impulses: the neutralizing of a
threat and competitor, and an easy meal. But tigers are quick studies and
they are, in their way, analytical: there is no doubt that they absorb and
remember relevant data and learn from their experiences, accidental or
otherwise. If they produce successful results, the tiger will seek to re-
create those circumstances as closely as possible. Humans, this tiger had
discovered (or perhaps had always known), were as easy as dogs to locate
and kill. If the wind was wrong and the tiger couldn’t smell them, he
could still hear them, and that sound carried a compelling new message.
Now, a person stepping outside to split a few sticks of kindling might as
well be ringing a dinner bell. As he proceeded systematically from
dwelling to dwelling, the tiger was, in essence, running a trapline of
human beings.
ron
(Ron)
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