A global assessment of large terrestrial carnivore kill rates

• Main Authors: LD Emerson, HU Wittmer, LM Elbroch, Kristal Kostoglou, KJ Bannister, JJ Psaila, Desley Whisson, Euan Ritchie
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2024
• Subjects: Biological sciences; Uncategorised value; Canis lupus; Ursus arctos; Lynx; Lynx lynx lynx
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10779/DRO/DU:27011470.v3; https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/A_global_assessment_of_large_terrestrial_carnivore_kill_rates/27011470

ABSTRACTThrough killing and instilling fear in their prey, large terrestrial carnivores shape the structure and function of ecosystems globally. Most large carnivore species have experienced severe range and population declines due to human activities, and many are now threatened with extinction. Consequently, the impacts of these predators on food webs have been diminished or lost completely from many ecosystems. Kill rates provide a fundamental metric for understanding large carnivore ecology and assessing and comparing predation within and across ecological communities. Our systematic review of large terrestrial mammalian carnivore kill rates reveals significant positive geographic (North America, Europe, and Africa) and taxonomic (grey wolf Canis lupus, puma Puma concolor, lion Panthera leo, and Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx) bias, with most studies apparently motivated by human–carnivore conflict over access to ungulate prey and wildlife management objectives. Our current understanding of the behaviour and functional roles of many large carnivore species and populations thus remains limited. By synthesising and comparing kill rates, we show that solitary carnivores (e.g. brown bears Ursus arctos and most felids) exhibit higher per capita kill rates than social carnivores. However, ungulate predation by bears is typically limited to predation of neonates during a short period. Lower per capita kill rates by social carnivores suggests group living significantly reduces energetic demands, or, alternatively, that group‐living carnivores defend and consume a greater proportion of large prey carcasses, or may acquire more food through other means (e.g. scavenging, kleptoparasitism) than solitary hunters. Kill and consumption rates for Canidae – measured as kilograms of prey per kilogram of carnivore per day – are positively correlated with body mass, consistent with increasing energy costs associated with a cursorial hunting strategy. By contrast, ambush predators such as felids show an opposite trend, and thus the ...