Puma kills provide carrion subsidies to diverse scavenger communities

Elbroch and colleagues documented how pumas function as ecosystem engineers by provisioning rich, dependable carrion. Monitoring puma kills with cameras, they recorded a large diversity of vertebrate scavengers visiting carcasses and estimated the substantial biomass these solitary cats transfer to the scavenger community across the year. Because pumas kill frequently and abandon partly eaten carcasses, they supply a more constant carrion stream than episodic mass die-offs, supporting birds, mesocarnivores and invertebrates. The work reframed the puma not just as a predator but as a keystone provider of resources, extending the species' ecological importance beyond top-down control of prey. It is a key modern reference for felid carcass ecology and scavenging networks.