Gigantic, fierce and utterly terrifying, the dire wolf was not only much more massive than a normal wolf, but operated in giant packs of 25 to 30. These animals have the distinction of being the largest known canids ever to have existed and their skeletons are by far the most common to be found at La Brea tar pits in LA, one of the world's most famous fossil localities. Watch 'Prehistoric Predators: Dire Wolf' on National Geographic Abu Dhabi at 9 pm UAE & 8 pm KSA on Monday June 14th to hear the hair-raising legends of this truly chilling beast, as well as tales of some of the other super-sized animals that lived in North America at that time. Morphing a modern bison into a long-horned beast, a two-toed sloth into a giant ground sloth and an elephant into a mammoth, the programme will give a sense of the super-sized world. Gigantic prey creatures like the 18-foot tall giant ground sloth were heavily armed with savage claws and were pretty much untouchable. But the giant packs formed by dire wolves were organised to be able to kill some of these super-sized herbivores.
National Geographic takes viewers on a spine-tingling adventure in its series 'Prehistoric Predators', revealing that if three of today's most formidable predators - the lion, the grizzly bear and the wolf - were super-sized, we would have a startling and possibly quite accurate picture of the wildlife dominating what is now downtown Los Angeles, about 12,000 years ago. Using the latest science, research and animation, National Geographic goes on a journey of recreation into North America's past and discovers the secrets of these super-sized predators.
