Research overview: predicting carnivore density from prey biomass

A survey of the strong, general relationship between the abundance of prey and the density of the carnivores that depend on them, a cornerstone of predator ecology. Across species and systems, predator density rises predictably with prey biomass, a pattern formalized in scaling rules and used to forecast how many cats a landscape can support and how populations will respond to changes in prey. This overview synthesizes the empirical evidence for tigers, lions and other felids, the macroecological scaling of carnivore density with prey productivity, and the practical use of these relationships in setting conservation targets and detecting prey-depletion effects. It connects foundational quantitative ecology to applied conservation. The topic explains why managing prey is the most direct route to managing predator numbers.