Introduction
*opens book*
Hundreds of years ago, far before the great city of Zootopia was even conceived of, mammals roamed the earth. However, back then, there was a such thing as a food chain. Predators were on top, bugs and plants on the bottom, and prey was in the middle. It was a terrifying time for prey, constantly on alert, wondering if it was safe to close their eyes, let their guard down. On the other paw, it was difficult for predators to survive.
Despite a vast number of prey to choose from, it was nonetheless difficult to catch them. They were smart, hundreds of years of micro-evolution had helped them there. Small prey could easily burrow away, large prey were ferocious, dangerous, and hard to kill, and prey in the middle were too fast for most predators to catch. As a result, many predators slowly substituted bugs into their diet, as well as some berries and fruits. Real meat was still a primary part of any predator's diet, but it slowly became smaller and smaller. It eventually got to the point where meat was considered a delicacy. And while many thought that would be good news for prey everywhere, it really wasn't. Prey depended solely on plants and occasionally bugs, so the addition of hundreds of thousands of predators not only made it more dangerous to go out and get food, since there were predators at common feeding areas, but it also took away from the available food supply.
To solve this solution, prey built up strongholds where they could guard food they planted themselves. However, predators soon found out that raiding these strongholds for food was much easier than scavenging. The diminishing food supply and constant raids in turn caused many mammal species who were once friendly towards each other to become, simply put, unfriendly. A constant rivalry between prey and predator was a given, but rivalries between different species of predators or different species of prey began to spring up.
All of a sudden almost no species could get along with another, so as a result no technological or scientific advances could be made. All mammals stayed in their own comfort zones, unwilling to even consider improving relations or making a better life for themselves, for fear of their own survival. The quality of life remained at a fixed point, having reached its current attainable potential. Without effort, things weren't going to change. Even if some mammals wanted change, wanted advancement, it was considered impossible to get any mammals to even talk to each other, let alone get along.
This dire situation went on for decades, no side even considering a compromise. Slowly but surely, the populations of species would decline and rise again, only to repeat the cycle over and over. It was a losing fight for all sides. Still, being stubborn and close-minded, no one would accept the truth; this was going to be their life, their children's life, the children's children's life, on and on, until the end of time.
Finally, a jaguar decided this was not a life he wanted to live, it just wasn't worth it. He went around to all mammals, predator and prey alike, trying to convince them to see things his way. It took a tremendous amount of effort. He was presented with resistance, ridicule, and danger at every turn. It took months, and even then, he only had a small posse by his side. But it was that posse, those few mammals, that made the difference and enabled others to slowly see the benefits of working together. Slowly they made progress. It was painstakingly slow progress, but progress nonetheless. And eventually, they created the city of Zootopia that we know today.
His name was Roman, and this is his story.