Part 4: Predators new and old

 

Spotted hyaena, 20,000 years ago

Europe today is home to a diversity of predators large and small, most of which are either resident in Britain or were at least present in historic times before being extirpated from Britain for being a threat to humans, livestock or just because of destruction of their habitat. However, as well as these there would have been at least two additional species resident in the British Isles during the last interglacial.

Brown Bear

Starting with the largest and heaviest, Brown bears were common and were large compared to modern European bears – perhaps as large as Grizzly bears in the US. They would happily live in both warm and cold climates as the various glaciations came and went, perhaps only temporarily being driven out of Britain at the height of glaciations, when they might be replaces by Polar bears. Brown bears were present in Britain in the post-glacial period, only being finally removed from the British Fauna around 2000 years ago.

Lions painting, Chauvet cave

The Cave Lion is now classed as a separate species to the living Lion, but it was plainly very similar in appearance to them. The main difference is that from cave paintings we know it had a very small or non-existent mane and was much larger. It would have preferred open areas rather than closed woodland, but lived in both Glacial and Interglacial periods – lions are not especially cold-sensitive animals as long as sufficient prey is available. They preferred open country and would have preferred the horses common in colder and drier periods, but would also have taken Red and Fallow deer, Wild Boar, and might even have taken young rhinos and Straight-Tusked Elephants.

Spotted Hyaenas are such a characteristic animal of Africa that it is hard to imagine them living anywhere else, but DNA from European Cave Hyaena remains makes it clear that they were the same species as their living African relatives and interbred with them where their ranges overlapped in the Middle East, although they were a larger subspecies.. They liked to use caves as dens, and the collection of bones that they brought back are a valuable guide to animals living in the area of the den. An adaptable species, they lived in both cold and warm periods. They seem to have preferred lowland open country, with populations of wild horse and wild ass which were their chief prey, and the loss of this habitat following the extinction of the Straight-Tusked Elephant and other large herbivores may have led to their extinction.

Grey Wolf

Definitely subordinate in the carnivore guild to all of these would have been the Wolf. Faced with the other large predators they would have had serious competition – in fact hyaena dens have been found to contain Wolf bones which had been gnawed by hyaenas- so they might well have been more restricted to forested areas where Lions and Hyaenas at least would be at a disadvantage, although Bears would have certainly sometimes robbed them of food as they do today. Today in mainland Europe Wolves are major predators of Beavers, which in turn affects forest structure and watercourse behaviour.

Eurasian Lynx

More or less on a par with Wolves in terms of prey size would be the Lynx. Eurasian Lynx like to feed on animals the size of Roe Deer, but would also have taken Red Deer fauns, Wild Boar piglets and smaller prey including various birds.

European Wildcat

Finally there would have been a variety of small carnivorous mammals, including various mustelids, Red Fox and the Wild Cat. These would have preyed on small rodents, birds, and in the case of the Otter fish and amphibians.

This very complex set of predators of all sizes would have interacted with each other in ways that are difficult to determine from this point in time. For example, Lynx readily kill Red Foxes, are vulnerable to Wolves, and lose kills to Brown Bears, which means they have to kill more prey than they need just for themselves. Lynx are primarily forest animals, but in open areas Wolves would have been in the same position with regard to Lions and Hyaenas, perhaps relegating them to a more Jackal-like role. One study of Cave Lion diet showed that the animals studied had preferred to eat Reindeer, but Hyaenas preferred Horses, although they also preyed upon various deer. In Africa today both Lions and Hyaenas sometimes prey on young hippos, but adults are more or less immune to predations as they are such dangerous opponents.

That covers the larger mammals of Eemian Britain,  Next time I will turn to the birds of that period.