behind the big cat's and bear's, who is the top predator?

[Pckts]

(11-04-2015, 10:44 PM)Dr Panthera Wrote:

(11-04-2015, 10:07 PM)Pckts Wrote: Apparently, according to the study posted by @SVTIGRIS the Jaguar doesn't hunt caiman very often compared to how available they are. They were comparing prey taken between cougar and jaguar and the jaguar obviously preferred the larger prey, often taking cattle as well.
https://markgelbart.wordpress.com/2010/0...s-jaguars/

For sure, given that the abundant caimans can form 30-45% of all available live biomass...they form less than that of the biomass eaten by Jaguars so yes they are not preferred, caimans still live in a different habitat and are still formidable animals with dangerous weapons.
It remains remarkable however that Jaguars have evolved to exploit this food source along side turtles and iguanas, jaguars evolved in Eurasia then crossed into the Americas , now in the neotropics where wild ungulates are scarce Jaguars supplement their diet with livestock and reptiles.
Everywhere they are sympatric, jaguars kill larger prey than pumas, the only place where this is not the case is in northern Mexico ( and possibly Arizona) there Jaguars are slightly larger than pumas ( roughly 55 kg versus 45 kg) the availability of deer tips the balance to pumas the excellent deer hunters.

But jaguars were almost hunted to extinction there, there size will go up as the prey become more available and they are protected. But that study shows that puma are more equipped to make it in our ever changing environment since they hunt smaller prey so the decreasing size of the jaguar may just be the last step before extinction in those areas unless something is done.

Probably what we are seeing with the Amur as well. Reply