Re: Carnivores and Packs

[ornstn@hookup.net (Ronald Orenstein)]

>
>Perhaps it would be instructive to look at carnivorous birds for
>analogs in the pack vs solitary hunter discussion. Heck, they're
>dinos anyway. I'm not well-informed on their hunting habits but
>have the impression they tend to act alone rather than in groups.
>Does flying make this inevitable? Heck if I know. Hopefully,
>someone out there knows a significant amount and can fill us in.
>
>Ralph Chapman
>
I don't think this would help much, as there is no living bird that captures
large prey relative to body size (the sort that pack-hunting mammals pursue)
by terrestrial pursuit.  In fact the only purely or largely terrestrial
carnivorous birds I can think of that regularly take vertebrates are the
secretarybird (Sagittarius), the two seriemas (Cariamidae), the two ground
hornbills (Buceros) and a number of ground cuckoos (like the roadrunner),
none of whom are pack hunters  The closest thing to pack hunting I can think
of offhand in birds is the cooperative fishing of some pelicans, but this is
more a matter of herding schools of fish than chasing down prey.

The original poster claimed that there are few large non-pack-hunting
mammalian carnivores.  This is, of course, untrue.  All cats except lions
are solitary hunters, and even lions do not really hunt in packs the way
wolves do though they certainly cooperate.  The largest near-obligate
terrestrial carnivore, the polar bear, is not a pack-hunter either.  For
that matter I have never seen evidence that the thylacine, the largest
recent mammalian terrestrial carnivore not to belong to the carnivora, was a
pack hunter.

A possible candidate might be the Komodo Dragon, though I am not sure it
would be correct to call what these lizards do pack-hunting.
--
Ronald I. Orenstein                           Phone: (905) 820-7886 (home)
International Wildlife Coalition              Fax/Modem: (905) 569-0116 (home)
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