Comparing big cats - differences/changes with time

[Pckts]

@BlakeW39 

Quote:Well, the study we've both reviewed takes into consideration over 3,000 jaguar kills; of this >3,000, it is found that all species of tapir were significantly avoided, with lowland tapir being very rarely predated on and the baird's tapid not being hunted one single time (out of 3,000).

First you must take into account how these "Kills" are monitored. 

"We searched Google Scholar and Web of Science for literature on the diet of jaguars, as well as gray literature (dissertations, theses) and the reference lists of any publications found. Keyword searches were for “jaguar” OR “Panthera onca” OR “onça” OR “onça-pintada” OR “onza” OR “yaguar” OR “yaguareté” OR “tigre Americano” AND “diet” OR “fezes” OR “presas” OR “heces” OR “disponibilidad” OR “alimentación” OR “dieta” OR “hábitos alimentarios” OR “depredación” OR “ecología alimentar."

In literature, kills are monitored by numerous ways but in terms of the most common, it's scat samples.
Scat Samples are anything but conclusive and are very limited.
There is no way to ID the animal via scat and you are only getting a limited amount of data from that scat. Meaning, you're getting only what the animal recently ate and nothing else.
The Pantanal is a massive place, impossible to monitor most cats, let alone get scat samples and investigate kill sites. 
It's also no surprise that there is a direct correlation to Cat size and prey size taken  "Hoogesteijn and Mondolfi (1996) found that floodplain jaguars were significantly larger [body mass: Llanos = 104.5 kg (males), 66.9 kg (females) and Pantanal = 99.5 kg (males), 76.7 kg (females)] than forest jaguars [body mass: Amazon = 83.6 kg (males), no data for females and Central American = 56.1 kg (males), 41.4 kg (females)]. This variability was also reflected in the diet of the populations, with the forest jaguars having a significantly lower mean weight of vertebrate prey at 5.8 kg, compared to 89 kg (including livestock) for floodplain jaguars (Hoogesteijn and Mondolfi, 1996)."

We also know that Jaguars do take Tapir, 3 in the study Posted and a few others below

Graham Digby
Tapir skull killed by Jaguar

*This image is copyright of its original author

*This image is copyright of its original author

But yes, these are rare but it again depends on the location.
Where they are abundant, they will be killed more often imo.

Quote:Also, while livestock are large, they lack defenaive capabilities similar to their wild counterparts, not even just physically, but that they lack the appropriate response to predators which a wild prey animal would have.

I'm not sure about that, I've seen Cattle Run off bears, they've ran off Pumas and Wolves as well.
Even a young Lion has been killed by Cattle

Domestic Waterbuffalo have been brought in to the Pantanal and they are a real threat, not only will they fight off a Jaguar but they actively seek out Jaguar young and kill them.
While a domestic breed isn't as attune to the threats around it, it wont take long to learn and become more aware.   

Quote:Jaguars were able to adapt to the Holocene because they didn't rely so much on the prey that was lost. I don't think it's at all misleading to say this.

You cant say that "they didn't rely on it" now that there's none available. What apex big cat doesn't rely on larger prey when it's available? Reply