"My... she is a biggun," a lone man spoke as he looked up to Tyra as she approached him with the two male Velociraptor Dinotopians that she worked with at Saurian Desires. They apparently knew or were related to the man, named Tyree Harding.
"Yes, one of the three Syntixisaurus Dinotopians, uncle," the first spoke, "and more than capable of helping with your pig problem."
"They ain't pigs, they're hogs and they're uprooting land that will make things bad for my cattle," Tyree grumbled, "Ya'll know that."
"We do... and that's why we talked to you about this," the second commented, "Tyra here is big enough and strong enough to take them down and you don't have to worry about caging up your cattle to prevent hunters from shooting them."
Tyra stood by quietly as she observed the debate and overlooked the land around them. They'd actually come quite a ways away from Dino City coming more into the western part of Texas. The land was a bit open, and aside from the ranch house that her two coworkers had driven her to, she couldn't see any other houses in the immediate area. She could see long line of barbed wire fence wrapped around wooden posts running along the road and heading into various bits of shrub country. She could see some trees, but they were short and twisted, almost more like they were large shrubs and not actual trees. She could also hear some "mooing" of cattle in the distance. It did present the impression of a decent sized ranch.
"Moving the cattle isn't that hard," Tyree commented, "they seem ta listen to me. And the hunters who get my permission have tended ta be good shots."
"Mrs. Ramos here has good strength and you won't need to drive out with a bobcat to get any of the bigger hogs if we can catch them," the first commented, "and we can move through hogs rooting up the fence posts, trees, and other areas needed for your cattle to graze."
Tyra nodded with some agreement to the comment, though she did have some of her own private concerns. From what she'd been told, Tyree Harding was a cattle rancher that lived out in west Texas and was a considerable distance from Dino City, but for years had also had to deal with feral hogs, some of which being rather large, rooting up ground and at times even harassing the cattle that Tyree raised. It had often lead to Tyree running an added business of allowing hunters to come onto his ranch and thin the number of wild pigs running around, which according to Texas State Law, was legal with the Wild Boar listed as an exotic species. It could thus be hunted at any time of the year so long as the hunter bought a license and passed a hunter-safety course. Tyra's two co-workers, Joey and Bernard, who worked as bartenders at Saurian Desires, had talked her into it with the idea that as a team they could thin number of wild pigs out and provide some additional meat for Dino City's Thanksgiving and not tax things with Glen Rose's local economy too much.
Tyra accepted and passed the hunter safety course, but was a big nervous. For one thing was that she'd never hunted before in her life, even as a human. In this, even if the fire arms companies had made a gun big enough for a Dinotopian of her size, she was just unfamiliar enough that even with the knowledge on proper safety, she wasn't sure she'd manage the operation a weapon all that well on her own. She also knew she was probably more than strong enough to deal with even a four hundred pound hog and that her own bite force wasn't that much weaker than Rex's and most of that was due to some of the other DNA pieces that made up the Syntixisaurus Rex genome that came from theropod's smaller and weaker than Tyrannosaurus Rex, even if Tyrannosaurus was still the bulk of her present Dinotopian make-up as a Syntixisaurus female. That strength was impressive, but she had no real experience hunting and that would weaken her ability to respond to things the hunting target did naturally.
But she agreed and decided to at least give it a try, given that she and Rex could put away a lot of calories, and needed to. As did Heather and Jeremy. As did Mr. M and as would anyone else that became a large carnivorous Dinosaur. Hunting was thus something that might help feed Dino City and given that Tyra did her best to get along with her coworkers, she also gave it good consideration to work with them on their plan. When Tyree gave a final nod, she got the sense that the debate was ending.
"Okay then...Joey, Bernard, you both know where my land ends and know the terrain," Tyree spoke, "be safe... Even if she is strong... them hogs WILL fight back."
Joey and Bernard both nodded and lead Tyra forward. She gave a polite wave to Tyree, who returned it before passing through an open gate and into some of the longer grass that went around the back end of Tyree's property near his home. There were some patches where things opened into dry soil that had grass there, but there was still more grass than anything else. Tyra did her best to stay quiet as she walked and walk softly, just in case these wild pigs might have some ability to feel the vibrations of her footsteps as she followed Joey and Bernard. The two Velociraptor Dinotopians were about the same height as their uncle, and thus much shorter than she was, but they did walk with some confidence as they had come up with the hunting plan.
The idea was to work as a loose team, as Joey and Bernard knew where the feral hogs often were on their uncle's land and could thus lead Tyra to those locations. Then with the fact that they were smaller and faster than Tyra was, they could move around and then systematically startle and separate individual hogs from the group and drive one toward Tyra. If the hog focused on them, it would then lose attention and Tyra could still come from behind and ambush it. It was an ingenious plan, likely drawing more from Joey and Bernard's time as Humans before they converted before the IAC in the summer, given that Rex had told her that Velociraptor Mongoliensis was thought by paleontologists to be largely solitary. They weren't the pack hunters that "Jurassic Part" made them out to be.
"They should be resting near the watering hole by now," Joey commented, "we can get the first one there..."
"Yeah... Uncle Tyree sort of dug the area out to be a stock pond where his cattle could get a drink from the resulting pool..." Bernard nodded, "but these hogs have often driven the cattle away... particularly at night and then hang around and rest in the day."
"What if they're not there?" Tyra wondered.
"There are some other spots where we know where they go," Joey answered.
They moved along and as they got in among some of the trees that were there, Tyra had to move more toward the posture that most theropods walked in back in the Mesozoic Era with her head down forward and her tail out behind her for balance. The shorts and shirt she wore covered everything and even had zipped up pockets where the hunting tags and licenses were held for the hunt on these hogs. While she could stand more erect, as x-rays had found that Animalian hips were generally far more like a Human's hips than even the hips of the animal the Animalian was based off of. Even uplifted Animalians were found to have very Human-like hips, which then allowed for a fair number of adaptable postures. However, with Tyra's height, standing at her full height would only alert the wild pigs to her presence and they'd move on before they could get close enough to make their ambush. Joey and Bernard didn't have too reorient themselves, but they did crouch down a bit to keep their focus forward.
As they got closer to the watering hole, Tyra could see more open ground and less grass and the ground sloped downward to ward the stock pond that had been dug. She even caught some spots where the dirt was dug up in rather random patterns, which was an indicator of the pig's activities. Joey and Bernard then pointed to one end of the stock pond. Along the south side of the water, there was a small group of wild pigs, covered in dark hair and laying about in the shadow of one tree that was growing near the pond. Crouching behind the tree, Tyra looked to see the hogs that were there. They weren't the behemoth 400+ pound beasts that some wild hogs grew to, but she did guess that the largest of the group that was there was between 150 to 250 pounds. The remainder were even smaller than that, but still of reasonably good size.
"Okay... we're going to sneak around," Bernard whispered, "you wait here Tyra. You'll see us when we make our move. They'll either scatter at being attacked and we'll herd one of them toward you... and if they... or the biggest one tries to fight us... you can then move in and ambush it from behind."
Tyra only nodded and returned to watching as her partners moved off for the moment. The pigs really didn't move around that much and seemed content to doze and rest where they were. There were no piglets present, but that could mean that if there were some of these feral hogs that had youngsters, they were either elsewhere or the youngsters had grown up enough that they'd lost the coloration that young Wild Boar had to hide them from predators, though in Texas those predators didn't exist. From what Tyra had learned, the Wild Boar's typical predators were Gray Wolves, Brown Bears, Leopards, and Tigers going across the Eurasian continents. In North America, which prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Wild Boar didn't exist, and after the introduction of Wild Boar or the release of Domestic Pigs that went feral, there were no predators that could challenge them in most places. The American Alligator, Cougar, and Black Bear were the only possible candidates in the southern US, the first would be limited to ambushing them at the edges of ponds and rivers, the second would bee too small to deal easily with most adult hogs and had its numbers greatly reduced by human hunting, and the last was an omnivore that might not dedicate itself to hunting that often. It was only in the northern US where there were still Gray Wolves and Brown Bears where a natural predator existed that would be able to naturally handle any Wild Boar or Feral Hog. But Texas was not one of those states. The Gray Wolf was driven out by man and the smaller Red Wolf was at best threatened with extinction. And the Coyote and Bobcat, while both plentiful in number, were too small to deal with the adult hogs, and while they might kill a piglet, the parents would likely be close by.
Now it would be up to seeing if Dinotopians could step in to at times fill that role as predator. And so, Tyra waited. After about twenty minutes, some movement did catch her eye and she spotted the largely cream-white feathers with the tan and gray accenting colors for Joey and Bernard moving through grass and moving low to avoid being seen. Tyra could see them, thanks to good eyesight and being on higher ground. Some of the pigs seemed to sense something, likely by scent but hadn't responded too much beyond lifting their heads. Then things hit into high gear. Joey and Bernard leaped out and landed near one of the outliers of the group of wild hogs and let out a screeching cry, sounding like the call of a large hawk. The outlier and the smaller hogs did scatter, as was expected, but they moved in varying directions. The one the landed to actually dove into the water and was soon swimming north across the stock pond. Most of the rest turned and headed south away from the stock pond and away from Tyra. One or two did come Tyra's way, but that was where the other problem came in. The largest hog, even if he was only around half the size of some of the monster sized feral hogs, was still big enough to easily give Joey and Bernard trouble and that hog stood his ground.
"Here goes," Tyra said to herself and curled her lips upward, exposing her own robust teeth.
She gave no vocalization as she came around the tree, though the two that came her way squealed at her appearance and then turned south as Tyra moved forward to catch the larger hog that was facing toward Joey and Bernard. The hog lunged forward at Joey, who hopped back and let an opening for Bernard to leap at its side and kick its killing claw into the side of the pig's hide. The claw made some penetration, but didn't get deep and Bernard had to kick himself free with the other foot which actually did more to slow down the hog which had to stagger a bit from the second kick. That gave Tyra the time to get closer and she could hear the hog opening and closing its mouth, making its tusks click against each other.
Tyra then got to a jog before the hog fully recovered and grabbed at its shoulder with one hand and pulled up and essentially tipped the feral hog over. Her finger claws weren't as long as Joey and Bernard's sharper killing claw on their feet, and at best she only left a few shallow scratches in the fur of the hog's shoulder. As the hog landed on its other shoulder it tried to swing its head up to drive its tusks into Tyra's arm, but Tyra caught that upward swing with her other hand with her thumb ultimately digging into the hog's eye, making it squeal and in pain and try to thrash, but it wasn't enough to break free. Tyra soon had it pinned down as Bernard came in and grabbed the hog's rear legs to keep it from moving. Joey kept a look out and saw that many of the scattered hogs hadn't recovered or turned around.
With things clear, Tyra brought head down and opened her jaws to clamp down on the hog. Its skin was tough and its hair tickled her tongue, but given that Syntixisaurus Rex was officially classified as a subspecies of Tyrannosaurus, based on the volume of T Rex DNA in the hybrid theropod, she was able to put a tight squeeze on the hog's neck. Her teeth weren't as sharp as Mr. M's and thus didn't easily pierce the hog's flesh, but the sheer bite force was enough drive her teeth in, leading to a large amount of blood spurting out onto the ground beneath the hog. She could even here a few slight cracking sounds, indicating that even if she couldn't crush the hog's bones, she was still inflicting fractures. And while she wasn't as big as a mundane Tyrannosaurus, which would have been able to eat the hog in one bite, she was still able to grip the hog's neck. It struggled, but as blood poured out and the animal was otherwise wounded by the bite, those struggles grew less and less. After a few moments, they ceased and the feral hog was dead.
"Good job, T," Joey said to her.
"You two have been good friends," Tyra answered, "I wouldn't let it gore you with its tusks."
"All according to plan," Bernard nodded, "now to get it back to the garage where we and Uncle Tyree can butcher it and we can then carry the meat back to Dino City later..."
"After we also catch some of the others," Joey agreed, "and again... good job, T."