Re: Climbing Dromies

[Chris Campbell <sankarah@ou.edu>]

Michael Teuton wrote:
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ronald Orenstein <ornstn@home.com>
> To: dinosaur@usc.edu <dinosaur@usc.edu>
> Date: Monday, December 14, 1998 10:36 AM
> Subject: Re: Climbing Dromies
> 
> >As do arboreal or semiarboreal civets (linsangs, the binturong etc), the
> >fossa of Madagascar, the fisher, and a number of cats.
> >--
> >Ronald I. Orenstein
> 
> AFAIK, all cats with the exception of cheetah will take prey from trees.
> Has anyone knowledge of cheetah doing so?  I believe they do climb limitedly
> and usually to see.

Yup, and then usually only younger animals.  I'm not sure one can say
that all other cats take prey from trees; tigers come to mind as a
possible exception (though I don't really put anything past them).

I think it's entirely reasonable to speculate that some dromies might
have climbed trees, but it seems far-fetched to me to speculate that
those sickle claws developed to facilitate tree-climbing ability.  There
are many other things for which they would seem much more useful.