Research overview: reconstructing cave lion hunting behaviour

This overview examines how researchers reconstruct the hunting behaviour of the cave lion from anatomy, isotopes, prey associations, and prehistoric art. Skeletal proportions indicate a powerful ambush predator capable of taking large mammoth-steppe herbivores, while isotopic studies suggest regional specialization on prey such as reindeer or young animals, and possibly seasonal exploitation of hibernating cave bears. The survey reviews debates over whether Panthera spelaea was social like modern lions or more solitary, drawing on cave art that sometimes depicts multiple lions, on comparisons with living relatives, and on the difficulty of inferring behaviour from fossils. It discusses how multiple, sometimes conflicting, lines of evidence are integrated to build a picture of how this dominant Ice Age cat found, subdued, and consumed its prey.