Although hyenas are among the main predators, they are often killed or injured by lions. Hyenas and lions share a high level of diet overlapping and are often in direct competition for the same food resources. Lions are bigger and stronger than hyenas, which puts hyenas at risk of injury or death during competitive interactions for food. However, the potential benefits are overweighting the risk of injury from lions.
Animal diet is influenced by habitat usage, behaviour, morphology and physiology. Understanding predator diet is important because they are able to influence the diversity and abundance of prey species in an ecosystem by means of predation,but also by creating avoidance behaviour on prey species which can affect survivorship negatively.
Endemic to Africa, south of the Sahara, although formerly with a geographic range across almost all of Africa and Eurasia. Current distribution is more patchy, especially in West Africa, with populations often concentrated in protected areas, of Chad, Central African Republic, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, Namibia, Angola, and some parts of South Africa.
Among mammals living in social groups, individuals form communication networks in which they signal their identity and social status, thereby facilitating social interaction. Despite its importance in understanding mammalian societies, the encoding of personal information in voice signals from non-primate mammals has been relatively neglected.
Deer and elk antlers are real bones, and the velvet covering the growing antlers is a modified extension of the head’s normal skin. The antlers are the most rapid growing postnatal bone known. When the antlers are shed, a small piece of the outer part of the peduncle is lost. This shortens the outer length of the stalk more than the inner length, causing the antlers to have an ever-increasing expansion each year.
The largest of Africa’s carnivores, and second-largest member of the family Felidae (after the Tiger Panthera tigris), standing as much as 1.25 m at the shoulder. Body muscular and deep-chested; head relatively short-muzzled and round-faced with prominent whiskers and white chin. Aside from the Asian tiger, lions are the largest living cats and the largest living African predator.
While human encounters are rare, cougars are dangerous as they are large predators that can seriously injure or kill humans. Conflicts can arise when a puma becomes too accustomed to the presence of humans, often near where we live or play, and begins to prey on livestock or other pets. Urban sprawl is reducing cougar habitat and increasing human-cougar conflict.
Habitat and Home Range • Cougars use steep ravines, rocky outcrops, boulders, or vegetation such as dense scrub and forest to hide while hunting. • Adult male cougars are widely roaming, covering a range of 50 to 150 square miles depending on the cougar’s age, season, terrain type, and prey availability. • The home ranges of adult male cougars often overlap those of three or four females.
Cougars make a living by not being seen. In areas disturbed by humans, these cats are most active at dusk and early in the morning. In low-light conditions, cougars see up to six times better than humans.
Mountain lions, also known as Cougars are opportunistic carnivores. In Utah, the mule deer makes up over 80% of the mountain lions’ diet. Cougars primarily eat large vertebrate prey. such as elk, bighorn sheep ( Ovis canadensis ), moose ( Alces alces ) and pronghorn ( Antilocapra americana ) may also be eaten.
