Research overview: prey-size range and predator body-mass scaling

An overview of how the range of prey sizes a felid exploits scales with its own body mass, producing the nested prey-size structure of carnivore communities. Larger cats not only take larger average prey but extend their prey-size range upward to include big, dangerous species, while retaining the ability to take small prey, whereas small cats are restricted to a narrow band of small prey. This survey synthesizes the allometric relationships documented across African and other felid guilds, the energetic and mechanical bases for them, and their implications for prey partitioning and competition. It connects body-size scaling to prey selection and guild structure. The topic provides a unifying framework for predicting which prey a cat of a given size will exploit and how co-occurring predators divide the prey spectrum.