While the tiger itself is a fearsome predator, its strength and ferocity pales in comparison to that of the larger dire tiger. Known to many scholars as the smilodon and to tribal societies as the saber-toothed tiger, the dire tiger is invariably one of the region's top predators. Its defining feature is a pair of huge incisors that hang down like fearsome knives from the upper jaw, protruding menacingly even when the creature's mouth is shut.