|
Post by grrraaahhh on Jul 24, 2012 5:39:51 GMT -9
UrsusMaritimus, quite a few literature have come out over the last year on cave bear and cave lion relations - I've been sitting on them for a little while because I am up to my neck with other literature and related material tasks. In general, it takes a lot of energy to identify, access, organize, edit, then communicate the data. RE: cave bears and cave lions, there's a lot of erroneous claims being made by people who have not read the literature - it is obvious their material access is limited or they are selective about the data they cite. I tend to think the former or maybe a combination of the two. This is a topic I think many people find interesting. Hopefully, we can get into more of the recent literature in the not too distant future. Not to be forgotten, the thread that hardly started. Sorry for the delays. Persons who have read in full (not just the abstract article) or are familiar with the literature are encouraged to participate. ~ Grrraaahhh
|
|
|
Post by Ursus arctos on Jul 26, 2012 9:27:34 GMT -9
I've read the full article. It was certainly interesting, and made it seem very likely that the lions really did venture deep into caves to feed. Perhaps later I can provide more quotes and details.
I would however like to add some info from "Isotopic evidence for dietary ecology of cave lion (Panthera spelaea) in North-Western Europe: Prey choice, competition and implications for extinction" as well: When the average isotopic values of the possible preys were reconstructed, two lions fell on or close to the isotopic values of reindeer, one fell on the isotopic value of woolly rhinoceros, and the last one in an area close to the range exhibited by horses and cave bears, but with slightly lower d13C and higher d15N than the average value for adult cave bears (Fig. 3). Predation of juvenile black rhinoceros by modern lions in Africa has been reported (e.g., Elliot, 1987; Brain et al., 1999; Plotz and Linklater, 2009), and therefore such a prey preference seems possible for cave lions. In the case of the cave lion with an average prey falling close to the adult cave bear value, young cave bears typically exhibit more negative d13C values and more positive d15N values than their adult counterparts (e.g., Bocherens et al., 1994; Nelson et al., 1998; Bocherens, 2004; Pérez-Rama et al., in this issue), the consumption of such a prey in addition to horse could explain the observed pattern for this lion.
AND
When cave hyenas were present in the environment of cave lions in Ardennes as well as in the Swabian Jura, cave lions seem to have relied heavily either on reindeer or on cave bear cubs, with strong individual prefer- ences. At Goyet, the remains of first spring bear cubs are the ones that were especially damaged by carnivores. It is possible that the carnivores, and this study strongly suggests that they were cave lions, took advantage of the fact that the bear mothers left their young alone for a while, just as recent brown bears do (e.g., Couturier, 1954), when they were looking for food at the end of the winter rest (Germonpré and Sablin, 2001). The fact that the only cave lion from the Ardennes during the pre-LGM period that had d13C and d15N values overlapping those of the cave hyenas was actually post-dating the extirpation of cave hyenas further supports this view. The possibility that some cave lions consumed high proportion of cave bears, especially young ones, is supported by the present study. Predation by cave lion has been suggested previously as a mortality cause of cave bear yearlings (e.g., Weinstock, 1999) and even the habit of cave bears to hibernated deep into cave system has been suggested to be a defence against predation by cave lions, among others (Diedrich, 2009b). The fact that the bone collagen of some individuals of cave lions was strongly influenced by the isotopic signature of young cave bears and that this tissue records an average of the food consumed during several years suggests that consumption of young cave bear may not have been accidental but was rather performed on a regular basis by some cave lions. Among modern lions, some individual dietary specialization on unusual prey has been documented, for instance the so-called “man-eaters from Tsavo”, and were found especially in case of prey scarcity and in individuals suffering from craniodental infirmities (Yeakel et al., 2009).
BTW, This supports further the hypothesis of a competitive displacement of cave lions by cave hyenas. In combi- nation with evidence for fights between cave hyenas and cave lions and that cave hyenas sometimes consumed carcasses of lions during the Late Pleistocene (e.g., Diedrich, 2008, 2009a), this indicates that lions were at a disadvantage in the competition with hyenas. This could be linked to the solitary habits of cave lions in contrast with the clan behaviour of cave hyenas. This is in contrast with modern spotted hyenas and lions in Africa, where both predator species exhibit a large overlap in the prey choice (Hayward, 2006). Modern lions, even if they are smaller than the Pleistocene ones, may resist better the competition with spotted hyenas thanks to their collective behaviour. In contrast, carnivorous brown bears could sustain die- tary competition with hyenas using overlapping prey items as Pleistocene brown bears were even larger than modern ones (e.g., Baryshnikov and Boeskorov, 2004) and therefore much larger than hyenas, while leopard could use food caching to protect their prey from competing hyenas, as they do nowadays for instance when they are in competition with tigers (e.g., Seidensticker, 1976).
|
|
|
Post by grrraaahhh on Jul 26, 2012 12:30:02 GMT -9
Thanks Ursus. I would like this discussion to extend beyond one or two articles. Spanning several-plus years (especially the last 2 years) Dr. Diedrich has published A LOT of material on cave bear, cave lion, & cave hyena relations. If there is interest, my hope was to collectively/comprehensively tackle this topic. www.paleologic.de/index.php?id=43&L=1
|
|
|
Post by grrraaahhh on Jul 29, 2012 8:22:28 GMT -9
Thanks Ursus. I would like this discussion to extend beyond one or two articles. Spanning several-plus years (especially the last 2 years) Dr. Diedrich has published A LOT of material on cave bear, cave lion, & cave hyena relations. If there is interest, my hope was to collectively/comprehensively tackle this topic. www.paleologic.de/index.php?id=43&L=1 All, I am a person who likes to whenever possible cover a lot a ground on any given topic of serious discussion. For those of us with subscription level article access, please understand, I am not saying each article has to be broken down and explained; however, I think it's important for anyone interested to be familiar about the relating literature and its evolution. My schedule is too busy to manage every thread. Everyone, is encouraged to participate. We are talking about cave bear, cave lion, & cave hyena relations. What's not to like? Europe's last ice age, significant climate shifts, the challenge to wildlife, etc, etc.
|
|
|
Post by sarus on May 20, 2013 11:20:08 GMT -9
__________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________ ► www.aufildeslions.fr/?_escaped_fragment_=110/crane-complet-de-panthera-spelaea#!110/crane-complet-de-panthera-spelaea __________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________
|
|
|
Post by sarus on May 20, 2013 23:50:44 GMT -9
|
|
|
Post by grrraaahhh on Jun 10, 2013 0:50:53 GMT -9
Nice find. Thanks again sarus.
|
|
|
Post by grrraaahhh on Nov 28, 2013 7:32:20 GMT -9
The latest from C.G. Diedrich: 3.7. Cave Bear Predators and ScavengersIt was generally suggested before that only “natural mortalities” occurred in those cave bear populations which were found in caves [70, 71]. First interpretations of carnivore impact on cave bear populations were discussed in a single European cave [72]. New research has demonstrated that cave bears indeed have been the main food source for these large Ice Age predators (lions, hyenas) in boreal forest environments [1–3], whereas newest nitrogen isotope analyses have additionally suggested lions to have fed at the end of the Late Pleistocene mainly on cave bear cubs at least [73]. This predation on cave bears is supported herein with further evidence from the German Sophie’s Cave (Figures 1(b)–1(e)). The impact of carnivores in this cave appears to have been quite high (18% of the cave bear bones have been damaged by carnivores) which needs to be taken into account in any studies on the life and death of European cave bears. They would have been at their most vulnerable during winter hibernation and when raising young cubs (Figure 2) [1, 32, 74]. The Ice Age wolf in Europe Canis lupus cf. spelaeus is herein newly introduced as a “cave bear scavenger” and is not revised yet as lack of DNA studies, but its bone proportions are close to the Canadian timber wolf compared to skeletal material, and the Late Pleistocene wolf of Central Europe was a little larger than the modern European wolf. They possibly belong to a specialized Late Pleistocene wolf ecomorph [55]. It also appears that in the early to middle Late Pleistocene this large wolf existed all over Europe, which was then replaced directly within the maximum glaciation by the smaller wolf type, which finally disappeared with the reindeer fauna, replaced finally by the Holocene warm period European wolf Canis lupus lupus. Also the ecology of early to middle Late Pleistocene wolf within the mammoth steppe and boreal forests was quite unknown, also if those used caves as dens. Denning in wolves was reported in a first study in the Late Pleistocene of northern Italy [53], but similar as in Germany, most hyena “wolf den caves” overlap with “hyena den sites,” and the question still remains, if hyenas imported wolf carcass remains to their dens (in bone accumulations typically present), or if wolf bones in caves are simply results of their den use, and scavenging on wolf carcasses by hyenas? The taphonomy of wolves in “hyena den bone assemblages” remains unsolved. Extant wolf remains are not abundant in smaller caves, which are used by modern wolves as cub raising dens, and modern wolves do not import those amounts of carcass remains (even if it seems to be mainly reindeer) to caves (such as hyenas). At least rarely they only use those shelters for cub raising [56]. Until today, it is unsolved, if wolves used caves as dwellers, as dens, and prey storage or if their bone remains are results of battles with hyenas, lions, and cave bears in caves in the Late Ice Age of Europe. The bone taphonomy situation is even more complex, as in lions, or hyenas. New discoveries in the Sophie’s Cave not far from the Zoolithen Cave, Bavaria, Germany (Figure 1(b)), presented herein, allow the first insights to the feeding habits in mountain regions and cave den use behaviour of Late Pleistocene wolves, which had to compete with two larger predators, lions and hyenas, which has no modern analogy. Obviously, in studied caves of Germany, most of the wolf bones were found at hyena dens, also partly at cave bear den caves presented herein with a first overview of the Franconian caves (Figure 1(b)). The largest unpublished amount of wolf remains in this cave-rich region comes from the Zoolithen Cave, whose material is included in a preliminary study of this “large population” (about 400 bones). Other bones of large wolves can be reported after first “cave bear bone dump” studies in the Upper Franconia Große Teufels Cave (Figure 1(b)). At minimum, there are three caves of Upper Franconia (Zoolithen, Große Teufels, and Sophie’s Caves), which have both cave bear and hyena dens (Figure 1(b)). Those can be demonstrated to have larger amounts of wolf bones (Zoolithen Cave: 400, Große Teufels Cave: 50, Sophie’s Cave: 55 wolf bones). The Sophie’s Cave material is studied first in greater detail, which has not only wolf bones, but also, unique in Europe, wolf faecal pellets (not hyena, see hyena coprolite morphology in [59]), and even many bone fragments, and pedal bones from those faecal places of cave bears, which were partly digested, by wolves. Ice Age steppe lions must have been good climbers and nocturnal hunters similar as their modern African relatives [75, 76]. They hunted and killed cave bears deep inside their caves, possibly while the bears were in hibernation, as has been clearly illustrated by the discovery of articulated lion skeletons amongst cave bear skeletons and their hibernation platforms 800 meters from the entrance of the Urşilor Cave in Romania [77]. Supporting evidence has also recently been found in the Zoolithen Cave [10] and many other caves of the Sauerland Karst in north-west Germany [47] as well as the famous Sloup Cave hyena and cave bear den in the Moravian Karst of the Czech Republic [46]. Newest nitrogen isotope studies also identified lions even as cave bear cub consumers in Europe [73]. Modern African spotted hyenas [75, 78, 79] and fossil Ice Age spotted hyenas are close related subspecies [80] and are poor climbers and seem to have mainly cleaned the caves of rotting carcasses, although operating in clans in the cave entrance areas they could also have easily killed cave bears themselves, and especially cave bear cubs [1–3]. At many of the German caves, including the Zoolithen Cave, Perick Caves, Balve Cave, and the Teufelskammer Cave in the Neander Valley they are thought to have been the main destroyers of cave bear carcasses and bones and to have specialized in feeding on cave bears in the mountainous boreal forest palaeoenvironments of the last Ice Age [1, 31, 52, 81–83]. Similar overlapping hyena den and cave bear den sites have been described from the Bohemian [60] and Moravian Karst, especially in the Sloup Cave [33] where hyenas in this mountainous region specialized in horse hunting [2], probably as a reaction to the absence of other megafauna prey or to their seasonal migrations. Horse hunting was also in the low lands important for hyena clans, demonstrated most recently at the German open air site Westeregeln [32]. Badly damaged cave bear bones indicate the importation of cave bear carcasses and single bones to open air dens such as the open air sites (close to mountain regions) at Bad Wildungen and Bottrop [82, 84]. 3.8. Lions as Cave Bear KillersAll of the cave bear den caves studied in Germany contain only 1–3% of lion bones of Panthera leo spelaea as the only known large Late Pleistocene cold period felid of central Europe [85], of which none are from cubs and those from juveniles or early adults are extremely rare [10, 46, 47, 60, 74, 86]. The highest rate of lion mortality in caves occurs at their peak reproductive age, as has been recently demonstrated for the largest known European steppe lion population in the Zoolithen Cave [10] (Figure 14(a)). Articulated lion skeletons have also been found between cave bear skeletons deep within the Ursilor Cave, as far as 800 metres from the entrance, these being the only large predator remains found so deep inside a cave bear cave [3]. Modern lions being good climbers and nocturnal hunters [75, 76], the Late Pleistocene lions appear to have been active in killing cave bears also in darkness deep in caves [10], probably largely during the winter when the bears were hibernating [10]. Whether the bears were killed by prides of lions or by individuals remains unclear, but a lion pride would probably be required for successful hunting of adult cave bears [10] and could have even successfully defended it against hyenas, such as well documented about the lion-hyena antagonism in Africa about megafauna prey [87–89]. The cave bear consuming of Late Pleistocene steppe lions was also proven recently with nitrogen isotopic analyses [73]. As with modern lions, the Ice Age steppe lions probably fed first of all on the intestines and inner organs of the bears (Figure 13(a)), leaving large canine tooth marks and scratches on the bones, especially on the soft spongiosa of vertebrae and long bone joints, as found in the cave bear bone material from the Sophie’s Cave (Figures 6–9). The bite damages on skulls of both, lions [90] and cave bears (Figure 15) seem to have resulted from their battles in the caves from intra- or interspecies fights. Source: Cajus G. Diedrich, “Extinctions of Late Ice Age Cave Bears as a Result of Climate/Habitat Change and Large Carnivore Lion/Hyena/Wolf Predation Stress in Europe,” ISRN Zoology, vol. 2013, Article ID 138319, 25 pages, 2013. FREE PDF LINK: www.hindawi.com/isrn/zoology/2013/138319/
|
|