Interspecific killing among mammalian carnivores

Palomares and Caro compiled and analyzed the global record of carnivores killing other carnivores, establishing intraguild predation as a widespread structuring force. They showed that interspecific killing is most common when the victim is between roughly 5 and 50 percent of the killer's body mass and when species share diet, and that such killing often exceeds what feeding alone would require, implicating competition. Lions, leopards, pumas, tigers and other felids feature prominently as both killers and victims, with cheetahs and smaller cats especially vulnerable. The paper provided the comparative framework for understanding how dominant cats suppress subordinate carnivores, and it remains the standard reference for intraguild predation across the order Carnivora.