Kleptoparasitism in practice – bear vs. lynx

Posted - May 27, 2020


Kleptoparasitism is a process when one species usurps kills from another, in this case, bear vs. lynx. Due to large body size and superb olfactory abilities, bears are one of the most important dominant scavengers and regularly usurp kills from other large predators. In Dinaric Mountains the bears usurp on average 32% of deer carcasses from Eurasian lynx. You can read more in this study, where researchers from Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana explore the influence of scavengers – bears on endangered apex predator – lynx.