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Shere Khan was a male Bengal tiger of the Indian jungle and the main antagonist of The Jungle Book.
Personality[]
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Biography[]
The Jungle Book[]
Due to being born with a crippled leg, and derisively nicknamed Lungri (The Lame One) by his own mother, Shere Khan was arrogant and regarded himself as the rightful lord of the jungle. It seemed, however, that the only creature who looked up to him was Tabaqui, the cowardly, despised jackal.
One of Shere Khan's failed attempt to hunt humans (which ended up with him landing on a campfire, burning his front paws) caused a human "cub" to stray from his parents. By the time Shere Khan caught up with the infant it had already been adopted by the wolves Raksha and Father Wolf, who have named it Mowgli. Despite Shere Khan's bluster, Mowgli was accepted into Akela's wolf pack and protected by Bagheera and Baloo. Furious at losing his kill, the tiger swore that the cub would be his some day.
Over the next decade, while Mowgli was growing up, Shere Khan infiltrated the wolf pack by promising the younger wolves rich rewards once Akela was deposed. His plan came to a head when the young wolves maneuvered Akela into missing his kill, and the pack council met to expel him.
At the meeting Shere Khan threatened that if the wolves did not give him Mowgli he would take over their hunting territory. Having been warned by Bagheera, however, Mowgli attacked Shere Khan and his allies with a burning branch and drove them away. Akela left the pack to become a lone hunter. Mowgli returned to the human village, but swore that he would return one day with Shere Khan's skin.
After he reached the village Mowgli was adopted by Messua and her husband and learned human ways. He also learned that the villagers had heard of the lame tiger, which had a price on its head, but believed it was lame because it was the reincarnation of a money-lender who was lamed in a riot. When Mowgli scoffed at these fanciful tales the villagers decided to put him to work herding buffalo to keep him out of trouble. While he was doing so he met his wolf friend Gray Brother, who told him that Shere Khan was still planning to kill him. Grey Brother forced Tabaqui to tell him where and when Shere Khan was planning to strike, and then killed the jackal. With the help of Akela, Grey Brother and Mowgli trapped Shere Khan in a narrow canyon and stampeded the buffalo, which trampled him to death.
