Almost done with chapter 6!
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Nigel and his crew have set up camp and are building some kind of paddock. He thinks that he may have a way to rescue a Deinosuchus without become its food.
"Now, here's our plan: we'll build this paddock so that it curfew, then put meat in the end. The Deinosuchus will run into it, becoming stuck, after which we'll put the portal in front of it, pull out the front posts and bring it back to the park."
Unfortunately, this poses one problem: Nigel left the meat in the jeep, meaning he'll need to walk back through the forest to the beach to retrieve it.
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Within the forest, Nigel is forced to move rather slowly. The dense branches and leaves shroud the forest floor in shadow, meaning that Nigel has to be extra observant for predators.
"This is the kind of terrain you don't want to be in. I can barely see, but a predator like Albertasaurus can see just fine around here, so I hope that one of them isn't watching me."
Just then, Nigel here's a snap, followed by a large amount of ruffling in the fallen leaves. Something is running through the forest. Nigel takes cover, but fortunately, this animal is much too small to be a tyrannosaur.
Instead, it appears Nigel's mystery animal is some kind of raptor, albeit slender and with a smaller tow claw. When he reaches the edge of the forest, he finds several of them feeding on pieces of meat. Unfortunately, that's his bait.
"I've seen these before, they're Troodon. We have one back at the park. These are among the smartest of dinosaurs, but modern birds blow them out of the water. These raptors are omnivores, so they normally eat plants, but they won't turn down free meat. Unfortunately, they're eating our bait."
Nigel begins yelling at the dinosaurs, trying to scare them off. It works, and they run, leaving Nigel with barely enough meat to make the trap work.
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By the time Nigell gets back, the sun is starting to set. As they get the trap ready, two Parasaurolophus approach the group.
"I think these are the same ones we saw earlier. They must really like us."
As the group gets ready to settle down, three large creatures emerge from the forest. They are tyrannosaurs, but more robust than the Albertosaurus.
"I didn't think we'd see these. They're Ajugatyrannus. Their fossils we're initially assigned to Daspletosaurus, but these are a different predator."
Amazing as they may be, the predators might be a danger to the trap.
Nigel, sensing the problem, has his crew light torches and try to scare off the predators. They managed to discourage them, but it is unlikely they'll leave, so watches are arranged to deal with them and any other predators that may arrive.
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Later that night, Nigel is watching the trap. Despite having taken sometime to sleep earlier, he's very tired and it shows.
Suddenly, a Troodon pops out and heads toward the bait. A second soon joins it.
Nigel, refusing to let the bait be stolen, charges to scare them off.
Unfortunately, while he scares the first pair off, another two appear and steal the rest of the bait. Nigel notices, but is too late to stop them.
Now Nigel is faced with an enormous problem: he no longer has enough bait to attract a Deinosuchus' attention. Now, he needs another strategy.
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Meanwhile, Suzanne is dealing with her own problems.
Martha is still isolated from the herd. While she hasn't stopped eating, her appetite is decreasing. Suzanne is very uncomfortable with this.
"I need to help her, and soon, but I really don't know how. I can't force the matriarch to change her mind, so all I can do is hope that she calms down soon."
For the normally calm Suzanne, this is extremely stressful.
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Meanwhile, Bob has his own problems to contend with.
In order to feed the park's sauropods, he'll need to plant at least 2000 trees each year.
"For some reason, plants 'ere grow a lot faster than they do on the mainland, but we still need a lot of them for these giants."
The titanosaurs are not helping this at all, as they have trampled several of the seedlings already. The Alamosaurus and Argentinosaurus are more cooperative and are providing Bob plenty of fertilizer to work with while avoiding the seedlings.
Him giving them stones for helping and flicking them on the lose with a riding crop when they don't may have something to do with this.
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In the morning at Prehistoric Texas, Nigel awakens to a battle of Giants.
Nearby, three Albertosaurus have engaged an equal number of Deinosuchus in combat over a dead Parasaur.
"This is spectacular. I've never seen this kind of fight before, so this is a first for me."
During the battle, one tyrannosaur manages to tear off a chunk of flesh, only for one of the crocs to grab on as well. The grisly tug of war ends with the piece of flesh being split in two.
Eventually, the tyrannosaurs back down.
"Even though the Albertosaurus are the top predator on land, they won't challenge the Deinosuchus for food."
Needless to say, they spectacle is rather intimidating.
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AN: Read and Review. This is Flameal15k, signing off.
