The moso was a species of feline native to Africa. It was the largest feline known to have existed, three or four times larger than a male lion. The moso was tawny colored with dark brown stripes and golden eyes, which helped to camouflage it in its grassland habitat. Mosos fed almost exclusively on elephants.[1] Typically, the moso would charge at a herd of elephants, causing the herd to panic and then separate. The moso would then chase and bring down an individual.[2]
Humans feared mosos, though that fear was tempered by the realization that humans were too small to satisfy a moso's nutritional needs, and thus, they rarely wasted their energy hunting people.[3] Still, a moso's roar inspired instinctive fear in people.[4]
A herdboy of the baTloka tribe named Tshingana had two encounters with a moso. The first time, while he was herding the tribe's cattle, he saw the moso feeding on a recently killed elephant.[5] Weeks later, on the morning he became a man by the baTloka's customs, he was hiding the cattle herd from the tribe as required when he saw a moso attempt to take an elephant cow. However, during the struggle, the elephant's weight broke one of the moso's back legs. The moso saw Tshingana and gave chase as best it could. After a brief run, Tshingana turned and threw his assegai into the moso's side, inflicting a fatal wound.[6]
