Tosk ( species ) Tosk , meaning " The Hunted " , were a reptilian race native to the Gamma Quadrant . They did not have personal designations , and ' Tosk ' – once one was aware of the role of the Tosk in their native society – pretty much summed up everything about them and their purpose in life . They were bred and trained to become the quarry in a ritual hunt for another race , known as the Hunter s . Tosk were only sentient because the Hunters made them this way ( this implies a degree of genetic engineering on their part ) . The meaning of life for a Tosk was to outsmart the Hunters for another day . They took great pride in their purpose , as well as looking forward to dying with honor . The only greater dishonor for a Tosk than being captured and returned to their home planet alive was to seek protection from another race . They took an oath of silence regarding the hunt preventing them from even talking about it with anyone else . The Tosk were greatly valued in their society , and were always treated with respect and admiration by the Hunters . Tosk were well equipped to outsmart their hunters , presumably to make the hunt as exciting and interesting for the Hunters as possible . Tosk could make themselves invisible to the naked eye ( although , sensor s could still locate them , and the Hunters had a device in their helmet s that could scan for them ) . They also had great agility and only required 17 minutes of rest per rotation . Tosk kept liquid nutrient s stored in plasmic fiber s throughout their bodies . They had the engineering knowledge of how their ships worked and how to repair them . They could also use computer s to get information for tactical purposes . Tosk were The Hunted , but that did not mean they simply ran for their lives . They were allowed to fight back against the Hunters and even kill them . A Tosk once leapt at a Hunter and knocked them down from a high walkway , possibly killing them . Presuming they could do so successfully , were allowed to capture the weapons of the Hunters , an energy crossbow , to defend themselves . On the bulkhead of their ships ' cockpit above the seat , a dock for the weapon was provided to store ( and presumably recharge ) it . In one instance , a Tosk knocked out a Hunter and took the weapon , but did not further harm them or attempt to kill them . Immediately after however , the Tosk was fired upon by more Hunters , this time shooting back and killing them . When encountering another species , Tosk could be nervous and guarded , but if shown that no harm to them was meant , trust could be built with them and they would become amicable and fairly polite , if tending on the quiet side . A farewell of respect from a Tosk consists of them grasping the recipient ' s upper arms with their hands and wishing that when their time comes , they die with honor . ( ) Background information . The Hunter stated that the Tosk would be taken back alive , and put on display , where children could " make fun of him , and throw him scraps of food . " While this suggests that Tosk did need to eat , it is also possible that the scraps were meant to humiliate the Tosk akin to throwing rotten tomatoes at bad stage performers , and that a captured Tosk would not actually eat the scraps . It was possible that the Tosk and the Jem ' Hadar are somehow related as the two races share traits , as well as their cloaking ability . The script for stated that the shroud ing ability of the two was to be identical and implied that the Tosks were bred by the Founder s of the Dominion , as gifts for the Hunters . Robert Hewitt Wolfe speculated that the Tosks were supplied to the Hunters by the Vorta . ( " " , p . 154 ) According to the " " ( p . 74 ) , the system where this species came from wasn ' t identified . Their homeworld orbit ed a . It had a magnitude of + 9 . Jake Sisko , Odo and Opaka encounter a Tosk in " Rising Son " .