Megalopecari dysthanatos

Sabertusked hogs are the bane of southwestern Caranoctia. There are several subspecies, ranging from the size of a wolf to the size of a bear. They evolved from peccaries (or javelinas), omnivores which already exhibited high levels of aggression. Compared to its ancestor, the sabertusk has longer, more powerful legs and a leaner build. As it no longer roots for food, it has lost the cartilage pad in the nose which gave pig snouts a distinctive shape. However, the sensitive skin around the nostrils still plays an important part in feeding - the sabertusk will run its nose along the prey's body, rapidly seeking the perfect spot to hook in its tusks.

Like the sabertoothed cats, sabertusks use elonged canine teeth to kill prey, but in an enitely different manner. It is the bottom canines that are enlarged, and their method takes advantage of the ancestral peccary's adaptations to rooting. Sabertusks hunt in groups about about twenty individuals which move in a widely spaced formation and keep in touch with high-pitched chirping noises which mimic birdsong and are designed not to alert prey. When a victim has been sighted, the sabertusks break into hoarse, earsplitting squeals both to co-ordinate their attack and confuse and disorient the prey animal. They rush in, slicing at vulnerable tendons, while the alpha sabertusk seeks to disembowel the prey with a savage upward toss of its head.

When not hunting, sabertusks are quite social, even playful animals. They live in loose groups lorded over by an alpha mated pair, but have a considerably relaxed social structure compared to say, wolves or chimpanzees. Sabertusk will leap to the defense of a threatened pack member, and hunters have learned even a poor imitation of a shoat's (young piglet's) squeal will bring the whole group running in a murderous frenzy - the rage of a mother grizzly pales in comparison.