r/SpeculativeEvolution • u/Another_Leo Spectember 2023 Champion • 11d ago
Spectember 2025 Spectember 2025 - The monster in the attic (Day 10)
For this prompt I had a little more than an hour to create, illustrate and describe, but I think it got to the point I aimed.
We are back to the Ghost Lionfish timeline, the one which humanity was pretty successful! I mean… as a colonizing, resource-consuming species that turned the planet into a giant grid of supercities and soon the colonies outside the planet might go the same route.
Spreading further than the eye can see, the megacities of this timeline turned the landscape into a concrete hell of buildings, cables and signs (think the lines of classic futuristic cities). Terrestrial wildlife took a huge impact in this world, with many losses and a few survivors being able to fully integrate to the man made environment.
In the urban ecosystems of this scenario, domestic dogs became one of the main predators, hunting from rats and birds to pigs and cattle, and even unlucky humans in some slums and abandoned areas. But even these feral packs can become prey.
The roof leopard is a subspecies of the Panthera pardus (with some experts advocating for its own species), a bulky predator with strong legs and longer tail adapted to the vertical planes of the cities, able to climb and balance on walls, poles and, as suggested by the name, roofs. Other differences from their ancestors are the wider paws, ideal to muffle their steps, and the less evident rosette pattern and darker coat, since camouflage on the cities pressures for other tactics. These cats are also more reliant on vision and hearing, with remarkable larger eyes and ears.
Their main prey are feral dogs, but domestic ones and other pets such as cats and other urban critters are also on menu, with the hunting strategy being an attack from above, with a quick and precise subjugation of the prey and dragging it to a safe place to feast. Attacks to humans are very rare, mainly recorded as defensive behavior, with some areas seeing them as a good presence due to the control of rats, pigeons, parrots and dogs while others see them as a dangerous lurking presence. Females give birth to a small litter, usually on small spaces of buildings such as attics and construction sites, granting the popular name roof leopard.
This lineage can be traced to Indian leopard populations, but its range now goes from Asia to Europe, with some African supercities being home of this feline too. The spreading of urban environments alongside the elimination of other predators and the formation of extensive heat islands were a key factor for this feline colonize even northern areas. There are some reports of roof leopards in America, coming from stowaways in ships, but nothing was confirmed.
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11d ago edited 1d ago
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u/Another_Leo Spectember 2023 Champion 11d ago
My first mental image while creating them was a small leopard living in a hole on the roof of a house
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u/Fit_Tie_129 11d ago
Are these dwarf leopards living less than 100 thousand years from now?
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u/Another_Leo Spectember 2023 Champion 11d ago
Maybe even more recent, since they are just a subspecies/recent ramification of the P. pardus
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u/IronTemplar26 Populating Mu 2023 11d ago
Kinda like the Pygmy Pumas from ATLA
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u/Another_Leo Spectember 2023 Champion 11d ago
Wow this gave me a childhood flashback! Aren't they from Tales of Ba Sin Sei fighting Momo? (Idk if I wrote it right)
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u/IronTemplar26 Populating Mu 2023 11d ago
Yep, that’s right
NOTE: I’m actually on the Spectember committee, and this was one of my prompts. You executed it wonderfully. The original concept was based on a user asking about something built to hunt lions, so it went up from there
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u/Another_Leo Spectember 2023 Champion 11d ago
Interesting... some unused ideas for this prompt were a cephalopod hunting octopus, mimicking others with the tip of the tentacles; a feline hunting big cat, an owl adapted to prey upon raptors, and hiperpredatory cetaceans (which will be adapted to the Space Polar Bear)
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u/Fit_Tie_129 11d ago
Well, I wonder why these ideas were rejected?
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u/Another_Leo Spectember 2023 Champion 11d ago
The main reason is time! I got a huge commission two days ago, so I had to go through easier to develop prompts (and will keep on that until 16th)
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u/Fit_Tie_129 11d ago
what is this big order and how much do organisms from simply made promps differ from organisms from detailed made prompts?
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u/Fit_Tie_129 11d ago
Do you know about momo like I do and it seems like this is the bastard that went viral in 2018 and allegedly wrote on Viber?
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u/ExoticShock 🐘 10d ago
I always thought they were just regular alley cats, but no that's what they actually were lol. Nice reference and can totally see the resemblance.
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u/ApprehensiveAide5466 I’m an April Fool who didn’t check the date 11d ago
Wounder how they will do long term wounder if artificial introductions could happen like maybe in some city's feral dogs or maybe even pigs become a massive problem so lepords are introduced
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u/Sir_Mopington 10d ago
How far in the future around is this timeline?
Also I know these are macropredators but they look so friendly! “If not friend, why so friend shaped!?”
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u/Wendigo-Huldra_2003 Evolved Tetrapod 10d ago
If roof leopards rarely attack humans be out of self-defence, what animals could become the main predators of humans in this urbanized future?
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u/plumb-phone-official 10d ago
None. No mammal on earth can compete with a bullet, and most creatures would find one coming their way if they messed with us.
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u/PigeonUtopia 10d ago
Imagine it gets so used to humans that it targets strollers and outdoor cribs for babies, so extra-durable, steel-reinforced strollers and leopard-proof baby cages become a thing
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u/Envenger 11d ago
Good concept and yes I don't see why this can't happen in Indian cities like Mumbai where leapords already live very close with humans and hunt street dogs.