The apes hooted and slapped the ground as a large, pale-coloured shape streaked across the bushes towards them. As it moved closer, the team could discern details of it; it was a large, sandy-brown big cat with black rosette spots, like a jaguar. Its most prominent feature was its canine teeth, which hung below its upper lip like vampire fangs.
Leon breathed out, "Dinofelis. A member of the sabre-toothed cat family and the apex predator of the Pliocene plains. A male by the looks of it" Jack muttered, "Didn't Dinofelis hunt larger animals? I thought it was leopards that did most of the ape-hunting." Leon shrugged, "Big cats aren't picky; they specialize on whatever prey is most readily available and even, sometimes, on whatever prey their mother taught them to hunt."
In the bright, dusty light, the Dinofelis' camouflage would be ideal; however, he had lost the element of surprise. Desperate, the big cat pounced; he had a lot of ground to cover, but there was the chance of picking up stragglers. Abandoning their digging, the troop scrambled for the trees. Drew, Jack and Leon watched as the big cat tore after them.
The young male Australopithecus, however, was on a lower branch – perfectly accessible for the big cat. The Dinofelis advanced forward, sank his claws in the bough and began hauling himself towards the young male. The young ape screeched in terror as the big cat climbed towards him, an anticipatory leer on his face.
Drew turned to see Leon preparing to stand up; confused, he asked, "Leon, what are you doing?" Leon muttered under his breath, "It's going to kill him. We have to do something." Grabbing the horn, Leon stood up, walked out of the bushes and began blaring it at the cat. The Dinofelis paused his remorseless advance and turned to snarl at Leon.
Suddenly, three of the Australopithecus began shaking the branches and throwing sticks at the large cat. Initially, the cat ignored these and continued to move further up the tree. Suddenly, a particular large branch hit the Dinofelis on the head, sending the sabre-toothed cat falling to the ground – the only injury was to his pride, but the humiliation continued to galvanise the apes. As he hit the ground, the troop continued to hurl sticks and stones at him. Humiliated, the predator slunk off.
Drew, Jack and Leon all looked at each other; this was an opportunity they couldn't pass up. Setting up the portal on the path of the predator's retreat and leaving some meat as bait, they waited until the big cat approached. The Dinofelis followed the trail of meat through the portal, into the present.
Now, it was time to bring back the Australopithecus troop. As the three humans approached the tree, the young male who had been left behind was the first to come down to the ground. Curiously regarding the strange new creatures, he noticed the strange object one of them was holding. He had been holding it when the honking sound that had distracted the predator had been echoing through the landscape. His intelligent mind put the pieces together; it was this object that had caused the loud honking sound, not some large animal. They had… saved him.
Drew, Jack and Leon looked at each other – this one seemed convinced, but the rest of them would be a bit more difficult. Leaving a trail of fruit down on the ground, the team retreated to a safe distance and waited for the troop to come down. Led by the dominant male, the troop approached the fruit one by one. Once the last one had come down, Drew, Jack and Leon activated the portal.
The troop initially recoiled at this strange, glowing orb. However, the young male stared, transfixed at the glowing orb; his eyes almost shining with a strange curiosity. Slowly, and tentatively, he approached the portal and entered it, into the present. The rest of the troop, curious as to where their fellow troop member had gone, followed him through the portal; once the last one had gone through, Drew turned to his teammates and smiled, "Let's go home". The three adventurers went through the portal, into the present.
Meanwhile, back at the park, Will and Yolanda were sitting in the vet offices, watching Raksha play with a toy. Yolanda turned to Will, smiling, "You're doing well. You spent several hours with Alice and you were totally calm. In fact, you really hit it off. If you keep this up, you should be able to tell all soon." Will nodded, "Well, the main problem there is – do you think she reciprocates them?" Yolanda beamed at him, "Watching you two today… I've never been more sure of anything in my life."
Suddenly, Kyle burst in, "The Ethiopia team are back. Yolanda, I need you to help Linda with the new animals. Will… Hang round here in case we need you." The two looked at him, as if he had interrupted some crucial conversation. Kyle sighed, "Whatever it is you were talking about, you can talk about in a couple of hours. We don't pay you to gossip. Now get going." Will and Yolanda nodded and headed off to their respective duties.
Meanwhile, in Kenya, Adrian, Cynthia and Alice were now tracking the young male habilis. After several hours of tracking, they looked up to see vultures wheeling in the sky… in exactly the direction the habilis' tracks were headed in. Cynthia pointed at the circling birds and said, "That's what he's headed towards; there's a carcass somewhere."
As they got closer, they heard loud, aggressive hooting. As they headed over the hill, they saw a troop of habilis and a troop of rudolfensis squaring off around a fly-blown Ancylotherium carcass. Alice looked at the scene, "They must have got there at the same time; they both scavenge for meat when times are hard. And, in a dry season, no-one's willing to share…" The two groups were displaying vigorously, trying to get the others to back off without serious injury – the rudolfensis were larger and stronger, but the habilis had numbers and determination on their side.
Eventually, the aggression escalated and the dominant habilis male tackled the dominant male rudolfensis. The two ape-men wrestled and gouged at each other, with the rudolfensis male finding his smaller, but more tenacious opponent a hard fight. Eventually, he managed to lever him off by pushing his feet against the smaller ape-man's chest, knocking him to the ground. As the rudolfensis prepared to advance towards the prone habilis, something caught his eye and he looked up. Terrified, he hooted to the rest of his troop, who, without hesitation began sprinting away.
Adrian, Cynthia and Alice, watching some distance away, found this too good an opportunity to pass up. Pointing the portal remote in the fleeing ape-men's trajectory, they activated it. Not even changing their path, the troop ran through the portal, into the present.
The alpha habilis shouted in victory, believing he was responsible for the rudolfensis retreating. However, when he turned to his troop, he noticed that they too were retreating. Cynthia, Adrian and Alice all looked at each other; what could have scared both groups of ape-men so badly?
Suddenly, the alpha male habilis went rigid as a low, purring growl echoed through the savannah. The alpha habilis hooted in surprise as a female Dinofelis advanced out of the bushes towards him. She had been attracted by the chalicothere, but the ape-man was an unanticipated bonus. The habilis quaked in terror as the big cat advanced towards him…