Research overview: scavenging contributions to felid diets

An overview of how much carrion features in the diets of cats traditionally viewed as pure hunters. While felids are generally more reliant on fresh kills than canids or hyaenids, many will scavenge opportunistically, with lions, leopards, pumas and others taking carcasses they did not kill, including those stolen from other predators. This survey examines methods for detecting scavenging, from kill-site investigation to stable isotopes, the conditions that favor it such as carcass abundance after die-offs, and how scavenging blurs the predator-scavenger boundary. It considers the energetic value of carrion relative to hunting costs and how scavenging interacts with kleptoparasitism. Recognizing the scavenging component matters for accurately estimating predation impact and for understanding felid roles in carcass and nutrient flow.