Flexible energetics of cheetah hunting strategies provide resistance against kleptoparasitism

Abstract

Population viability is driven by individual survival, which in turn depends on individuals balancing energy budgets. As carnivores may function close to maximum sustained power outputs, decreased food availability or increased activity may render some populations energetically vulnerable. Prey theft may compromise energetic budgets of mesopredators, such as cheetahs and wild dogs, which are susceptible to competition from larger carnivores. We show that daily energy expenditures (DEE) of cheetahs were similar to sizebased predictions and positively related to distance travelled. Theft at 25% only requires cheetahs to hunt for an extra 1.1h/day, increasing DEE by just 12%. Therefore, not all mesopredators are energetically constrained by direct competition. Other factors that increase DEE, such as those that increase travel, may be more important for population viability.The acquisition and expenditure of energy by animals unifies physiology with population ecology and viability, although interactions between energetics, ecology and survival can be complex (1,2). Indeed, of the studies that have investigated how energetic factors affect population dynamics, most are concerned with the effects of changes in abiotic conditions such as ambient temperature (3), with few examining the effects of changes in biotic conditions, such as the abundance and distribution of prey and competitors (1,4).Although recent human activities have driven declines in large mammalian predators (5), intraguild interactions may also shape carnivore communities. One persistent hypothesis suggests that, because carnivores may be routinely working close to maximum sustained power outputs, decreases in food availability or increases in activity may push them over an energetic precipice (6). Kleptoparasitism, the theft of prey captured by another animal, is one critical element in this interaction, particularly for mesopredators such as wild dogs Lycaon pictus and cheetahs Acinonyx jubatus, which are prone to competition with and displacement by larger more dominant carnivores such as lions Panthera leo, and spotted hyaenas Crocuta crocuta (7-11). The details of such intraguild interactions with respect to energetic implications are, however, poorly understood.Carnivores hunt using a combination of sit-and-wait, stalk, ambush and charge, or extended coursing strategies (12-15). While the short-term energetic consequences of hunting (i.e. the ways which predators chase and subdue prey) are profoundly different (2,16), the longterm costs such as the energy required to locate prey and avoid predators are rarely considered. These costs may be pivotal in determining the viability of different hunting strategies, particularly as it relates to prey abundance, accessibility and loss (2,6,17).We combined behavioral observations of 14 cheetahs from the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park ("Kalahari") with measurements of daily energy expenditure (DEE) to estimate the energetic cost of foraging. We also obtained DEE measurements of five free-ranging cheetahs fr...

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“…This concept is nicely illustrated with cheetahs, as they are highly threatened and thought to be negatively impacted by lions and hyenas scavenging their kills. Scantlebury et al (2014) used GPS collars to locate cheetahs each day in order to visually observe them hunting, feeding, and being kleptoparasitized. They also collected feces and used double-labeled water techniques to measure their daily energetic expenditure.…”

Timing of head movements is consistent with energy minimization in walking ungulates

“…for hunting and escaping, so an animal's life depends largely on the effective outputs of this behaviour. Nevertheless, it is the walking gait in which on average the most energy in absolute terms is consumed over an entire day [4,6,7]. As locomotion is an important energy-consuming factor for most mammals [4,[6][7][8], the main selective pressure shaping the walking gait used in slow locomotion should be energy efficiency rather than high performance.…”

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