Prehistoric Yukon ‘cheetahs’ were fish eaters, not really cheetahs at all: study
Paleontologists have discovered that prehistoric 'Yukon cheetahs' were primarily fish eaters rather than hunters of large land mammals. This unique dietary adaptation likely allowed the species to survive in the competitive Ice Age environment of the Yukon.
Why it matters
This finding challenges previous assumptions about the behavior and ecological niche of extinct feline species during the Ice Age.
Grant Zazula, a paleontologist for the Yukon government and one of the study’s co-authors, said the species’ identification in the territory was interesting because the pronghorn antelope hunted by their southern counterparts never existed there.
The researchers wanted to find out what the Yukon cats were eating instead, so they sent the fossils for analysis. The results showed a chemical signature that matched other fish-eating predators like grizzly bears, Zazula said.
In fact, the Yukon cats adapted to eat mostly fish, a unique preference compared to the more diverse diet favoured by their southern kin.
“We’ve never seen a cat behave like this before,” Zazula said in an interview Thursday.
He said the cats likely made the change to adapt to their new environment after travelling farther north into a Yukon that was vastly different 30,000 years ago.
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