Dagger Cat

If you're goin' through that jungle, listen to the locals and wear the damn mask on the back of your head. It'll stop the Dagger cats stabbing you in the back.
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The Dagger cat is a large apex predator found in Tural. It is an invasive species said to have been brought to the continent by the ancient "False Gods" 9,000 years ago when they fled their homeland. At the time they were kept as pets by royalty and symbols of status, but once their Empire collapsed, many of the creatures escaped into the wild and turned feral. There they interbred with other native big cats, the biggest being the striped, Royal Dagger Cats of the Pale Forest.

Description

Dagger Cats stand at roughly 1m tall at the shoulders and weigh between 160-280 kg. They are built similar to other big cats, but are more robust and muscular, with particularly well-developed forelimbs, relatively short feet, and a short tail. Their skulls are robustly proportioned, with a shorter and broader snout. The largest known Dagger Cat was a Royal Cat owned by ------------ in -----, that reportedly stood 120cm at the shoulders, and may have weighed as much as 400 kg.
Their most defining trait are their canines, which can grow to be 8" in length. Their jaw is able to open wide enough to use these fangs as precise yet fragile killing tools, the teeth having fine serrations on the front and back to aid in cutting through flesh.
Their natural coat is long haired and ochre in colour, covered in leopard like spots, though depending on the subspecies, this can vary from plain, to stiped, and even jet black or white depending on the parents and habitat. This hair grows out to a short mane around the neck and jaws, especially in males.

Behaviour

Adult Dagger cats are solitary creatures establishing territories of between 50 - 1,000km2 as early as 19 months old. Young female tigers establish their first territories close to their mother's with the overlap between the two reducing with time. Males, however, migrate further than their female counterparts and set out at a younger age to mark out their own area. The young male acquires territory either by seeking out an area devoid of other male tigers, or by living within another male's territory until he is older and strong enough to challenge the dominant male.
Dagger cats largely avoid one another and other big cats, though not always, and social relationships can be quite complex. Adults sometimes share their kills with other Dagger cats, even if unrelated. Females raise the cubs, but males have been known to take part in the rearing of young as a sort of family, and even adopting cubs that are unrelated to them, and training them as if they were their own. Interbreeding between other big cats such as leopards and tigers is common, though this is likely because there are so few "pure" Dagger cats in the wild, and because Dagger cats are so much larger than native big cats, giving them an advantage in fights over females in oestrus.
Dagger cats are ambush predators, preferring to get close and pull down prey quickly. They lack the body or stamina for an extended chase, and their tail is not designed to counterbalance sharp changes in direction, so instead they use forest or jungle undergrowth as cover to stalk prey, using their powerful forelimbs to hold the animal in place after pulling it down, and to safely deliver a throat stab with their canines. Dagger cats hunt medium to large sized mammals, such as various deer, wild boar, water buffalo, and bison. They have also been seen to take down bears, usually using their forelimbs to break the spine instead of their fragile canines, and on occasion, young elephants and rhinos.

King of the Jungle

Dagger cats are a threat to any who wander their territory alone, or in small groups. The beasts do not actively hunt humans, but are more likely than native cats to follow a party and pick off a straggler who falls behind. The practice of keeping them as pets is still strong, though now most cultures and peoples seek them out for exotic decoration in their throne rooms, and there are likely more of them in such positions than there are feral.