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TLK : Chapter 40
🕑 Added 2025-06-07 18:23:43 +0000 UTC[3rd POV]
[Name : Hana Park
Role : Zoologist and Big Cat Specialist
Nationality : Korean-American (from Seattle}
Age: 34]
"Okay, where do I even begin?" Hana asked with a wide, excited smile on her face.
She rubbed her palms together and gave a mischievous look at the camera. She was acting as if she was about to reveal things that would absolutely blow the viewer's mind.
Like it had happened to her and now she was giddy to see other people experience the same thing.
“In my career, I’ve studied Bengal tigers in Sundarbans, mountain lions in Wyoming, Asiatic lions in Gujarat, and even urban leopards in Mumbai. But nothing, and I mean nothing, could compare to studying Leo," she said.
"Okay, let's just begin with the most obvious issue, which is that Leo doesn't have a tail," she said.
The documentary played slowed footage of Leo walking across the open savannah. His gait was low and measured. His spine was tight, and his muscular shoulders rolled hypnotically. Each step he took seemed to put a heavy tension on the ground.
He was oddly majestic in the way he walked. Like he was aura farming with every single step he took across the savannah.
This was because of the deliberateness and clear purpose in his steps. If we compare it to a human, it would be like a model running down a runway. There was a charm with those intended steps, which a natural gait lacked.
Hana’s voice overlayed the footage.
“For most lions, losing a tail is a death sentence. The tail of cats, especially a big cat like lions, played a vital role in balance and movement," she said.
The screen changed to show diagrams of typical lion locomotion, showing the tail acting as a rudder during sharp turns and sprints.
“In feline biomechanics, the tail helps correct momentum, especially in the final burst of a chase. You’ll see cheetahs whip their tails during high-speed turns. Even housecats use them when leaping onto narrow ledges. Without it, most cats would falter in pursuit.”
The screen cuts back to Leo walking in the savannah. He encountered a rocky terrain, so he jumped over the obstructions and landed on a piece of log. He was able to balance himself on top of the log before jumping onto a small boulder and finally jumping back down on the ground.
He did all this elegantly and firmly, as if he had glue on his paws, like Spiderman. Even without a long tail, you never see flaws in his movement.
“But unlike most other lions, Leo compensates. And he did so brilliantly,"
The screen overlays heatmaps of Leo’s leg and spine movement during high-speed clips.
“He plants his front paws wider apart than a typical lion. His centre of gravity shifts slightly forward. His claws dug into the earth, and he had a habit of utilising at least two paws with every high-speed movement he made," she said.
"And we were able to realise all these from watching him hunt. Let's take us back to ten years ago when researchers first saw Leo in action,"
"It was the fifth day since we encountered Leo, and on that day, Leo was hunting a herd of Impala," she said.
The scene changed to show the full video of Leo hunting the Impala. Hana's voice overlayed on the footage as she explained what was going on.
Leo stalked the herd of impala, but then, before he could start the chase, they felt dangered and then moved away. Leo just remained in his place, stumped as he watched the Impala move to another area.
He waited for another opportunity and then flanked them. He stalked them slowly and even more carefully this time. His body was barely visible even to the camera that was pointing right at him.
He moved through the grass like a shadow. He moved only when no one was looking. But even with all his effort, he failed once more. The wind changed direction and revealed his scent.
The herd bellowed and then ran away further than ever before, leaving Leo to sit alone and without any prey to feed on.
"As you can see, Leo initially had trouble hunting the herd of impala. It was obvious to us that Leo was new to the land and he was not accustomed to hunting the prey here. From his behaviour, it looked like he had easy prey so far in his life," she said.
"But here comes the most interesting thing about Leo. He had a trait that stood in all these years and that was his ability to adapt, which was a direct consqeunce of his fascinating intelligence," she said.
In the footage, Leo walked away from the open plan and headed towards a high elevation. After that, he just sat there and observed his prey. At first, the researchers thought he had given up and they allowed a drone to fly over him to get better footage.
It shows Leo overlooking the plains, sitting still, watching.
“Lions are ambush predators, they are not planners. A pride will strategise to a degree, but even that was limited. A lone male lion planning on his hunt? That was unheard of," she said, "But that's exactly what we witness Leo do,"
"In the following scene, we witnessed something that truly boggled our minds. Leo, after realising that the typical lion hunting strategy was not working, came up with a new strategy," she said and then the video showed just that.
Leo, instead of stalking and trying to sneak up on the herd moved to another terrain completely. He had studied the pattern of the herd and predicted where they would graze next.
And then he planned an ambush there. There was no stalking, he was just laying there and waiting for the prey to come to him like a snake.
And the plan was successful.
Leo adapted his strategy and managed to get an impala, securing his food.
"This striking intelligence and adaptability reminded me of one other animal," she said and then the scene changed once more. This time, it was in a completely different environment and not the Savanah.
A montage began, showing wolves hunting in packs. It showed them strategising together to catch prey, unlike most predators on the planet.
The wolves did not have one hunting style, they adapted depending on the prey, the climate and even the time of the day.
“Wolves are known for predictive hunting, forecasting where prey will be, not just where it is. They study patterns. Leo is showing identical mental processing. That places him on a very short list of predators that include wolves, orcas, and yes even humans.” she said.
"With this, the biggest question on how Leo was able to hunt his prey without a tail was answered," she said and leaned back in her seat.
"It's simple really. A lion without a tail cannot hunt like a lion. So Leo hunts like something else, unique to his own style. If I had to give a name, he hunts like a predator, not a lion," she said.
She paused for a long time and seemed to be in thought. Her eyes stared at the empty space and her lips twitched as if she was preparing to say worse.
"It's almost like he knew he could never succeed and thrive as your typical lion, so he re-engineered himself in any way necessary in order to win and thrive. He learns from his surroundings, and I think that's why we see so many other animal characteristics in him,"
...
...
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[Name: Dr. Marcus E. Veldt
Role: Comparative Anatomist, Big Cat Specialist
Institution: University of Pretoria – Department of Wildlife Physiology
Nationality: South African
Age: 47]
The camera pans across a dim modern lab. Screens line the walls with muscle fibre scans, gait analyses, and predator-prey movement simulations.
The camera stops on a man, his name faded in on-screen, Dr. Marcus E. Veldt, one of Africa’s foremost minds in comparative anatomy and evolutionary biomechanics.
He stood before a suspended holographic image. It was not of a whole lion, but of its inner self. Bones, sinew, muscle layered in faint red and gold hovered in midair, gently rotating. The lion in question was not an ordinary lion. It was Leo.
“I remember the first time I saw the footage Hana and her team sent me,” Marcus began, his deep voice both clinical and curious.
“At first glance, Leo didn’t look like anything extraordinary, at least, not in the conventional sense. Without all these scans and in-depth imagery, he would simply look like a lion with muscles and without a tail. But beneath that fur and skin lay a biological marvel,"
He paused, turning to the digital model. A single-hand motion brought Leo’s simulated skeleton to life, and the lion ran in slow motion. The muscles were shifting and bones were responding like an orchestra of force and precision.
“He was clean. Clean in the way a well-oiled machine is clean. His movements wasted no energy. His turns were sharp, never loose. His jumps were explosive,” he said. “Many have claimed that Leo was simply compensating for the lack of a tail, but I disagree. It’s not that simple. I don’t think we’re looking at a lion that adapted to losing a tail. We’re looking at an entirely different evolutionary answer." he said.
A new footage showed an ordinary lion hunting. The video highlighted the arch of its tail whipping side to side in perfect harmony with the body as it lunged forward. How the tail curved and twisted when the lion took sudden turns at high speed.
“In normal lions, the tail does more than people assume. It’s a counterbalance in motion. It is essential when a lion runs, pivots, or leaps. You remove the tail, and you compromise the animal’s equilibrium.” he said.
“But Leo wasn’t compromised,"
The hologram zoomed into Leo’s pelvis and lumbar spine. Small indicators showed areas where his bone structure thickened beyond what’s standard in wild lions.
“We analyzed his proportions using software that reconstructed musculature based on known feline anatomy. What we found was clear: Leo’s entire posterior chain which includes his glutes, hamstrings, calves, and spinal stabilizers was hyperdeveloped. It was a direct compromise of the body for the lack of tail," he said.
The screen changed to a still image of a bobcat mid-leap, its compact, tailless frame twisted mid-air, powerful hind legs propelling it like a spring.
“Leo's build reminded me of the bobcat Lynx rufus. A tailless predator that thrives in rocky, elevated terrain. Bobcats don’t run down prey. They explode - short bursts of energy, vertical pounces that can reach heights of 12 feet, and sudden lunges from blind spots. Their muscles are dense, their spines are short, and they carry strength where it counts.” he said.
“Now look at Leo.”
A cross-fade showed Leo jumping effortlessly up a kopje, his home. It was the same jump from Hana’s footage where his entire body compressed and extended like a coiled spring.
“That… that is not lion-like behaviour. That’s bobcat logic in a lion’s frame," he said.
He pulled up another cat without a tail. This time it was a domestic cat with humans around him.
"And then there’s the Manx cat, a domestic breed known for being born without tails. Over generations, Manx cats developed an unusually fused sacral region and broader pelvises to account for their centre of gravity. Leo’s pelvic x-rays show surprisingly similar spread, broader iliac wings, thicker sacroiliac joints.”
He pointed to the hologram again as it displayed the adapted pelvis. Then, the model peeled back its skeletal frame and revealed the muscle fibres.
“Here’s what really astounded us. Leo had hypertrophic growth in all the major muscle groups tied to propulsion - quadriceps, semitendinosus, gluteus maximus, and even in the spinal erectors. These muscles weren’t just active. They were developed. Like a lion that trains every day of his life."
Footage from Hana’s drone reappeared, showing Leo walking through the plains. Leo's every step carried a quiet, unnatural power in the shoulders and hips.
“This level of hypertrophy doesn't occur from regular hunting. It’s the result of constant, high-load physical effort. And believe it or not, that's what we observed Leo do over the course of the years. He is a lion who trains like a gym bro," he said.
The camera cut back to Marcus, now seated in front of a screen that displayed a visual timeline of Leo’s growth.
"Speaking of the gym, another question we asked when we found out Leo was young was how he became so big at such age. When they first began observing him, he was around two to three years old, technically still maturing. And yet, he had the frame of a five-year-old. Denser bones. Fuller mane. Ridiculously thick limbs. He was an adolescent in a giant’s body.”
Marcus leaned forward, more animated now.
"The answer to that question, after ten years of research, is, we don't know. We never found out the exact reason, but we have theories," he said.
“We considered three possibilities. First, the hormonal profile. Elevated testosterone- likely genetic - would accelerate both bone density and muscle development. Testosterone also enhances aggression and boldness, which we see in Leo’s behaviour later in his life, when he became fully matured."
"Second, nutrition. He must’ve had access to extremely protein-rich food since cubhood. It’s possible that he was either a dominant scavenger early on or raised under unique conditions where food was never scarce. That kind of consistent energy intake changes growth permanently.”
“Third, and this is purely speculative. Leo might be carrying a rare mutation affecting the IGF-1 pathway insulin-like growth factor. This hormone regulates growth in all mammals. Higher levels in early life result in larger adult size, especially when paired with testosterone,” he said.
"It could be any one of these or all of them combined. We are not sure."
"And finally...." Marcus began and stood up. He walked to another part of the lab where three ancient predator skeletons stood mounted in full display.
He smiled at the camera.
“Eventually, I realised that no modern lion, tiger, or leopard could serve as a fair comparison.”'
He placed a hand gently on the thick skull of one, a giant, broad-shouldered skeleton with fangs longer than any cat alive today.
“This is Smilodon fatalis, better known as the sabre-toothed cat. And this...” he pointed to a second frame, taller and leaner, “...is Panthera atrox, the American lion. It is the largest feline to ever exist. The big ones are estimated to be four meters long and 500 kilograms.”
He stood back and looked at the final skeleton, it fit right in along with the other two prehistoric skeletons. He made a thin smile, "And the last one is an artificially created skeleton of Leo."
“You want to know what Leo resembles? These. He doesn’t look like something out of today. He looks like an echo of the past, a beast born in the wrong age, sculpted by freakish circumstances and powered by will.”
He looked directly at the camera now.
“But he’s not fantasy. Every element of Leo, every trait and behaviour, exists in nature. We just never thought they’d all show up in the same animal.”
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[Documentary : End of Episode 1]
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Author : This will be it for the human stuff. I enjoyed the research and the writing. It was a nice break but we will return to the story next chapter.
