Epicyon: Solitary or Pack Hunter?

[smedz]

I've been looking into Epicyon lately and I've been wondering if Epicyon actually was a pack hunter or a lone hunter. What do you think?

[creature386]

There are two major studies on pack hunting in borophagines.
The former argues that they were likely pack hunters due to their large estimated prey size:
www.researchgate.net/publication/267156729_Pack_hunting_in_Miocene_borophagine_dogs_Evidence_from_craniodental_morphology_and_body_size
The latter argues that they weren't, stating they could have hunted similarly to big cats:
www.jstor.org/stable/4096984?seq=1
Unfortunately, both studies are really old.

[Supercommunist]

From what I understand epicyon had a more cat-like build which isn't all that effective for pack hunting. I recall reading a study that stated that lions don't see an increase in hunting success when there are more two or three lions working together. The exception is when they are dealing with very large prey like buffalo.

I am willing to bet epicyon was either solitary or hunted in pairs.

[Infinity Blade]

Borophagines were actually stated to have had forelimbs as powerful as those of extant ambushing carnivorans (i.e. most felids), although it's also been found that some species seem to plot closer to cursorial hunters than others. E. haydeni is apparently more on the cursorial side, although E. saevus also shows some adaptive differences from its close relative.

This study, for the record, didn't add anything helpful in determining whether or not Epicyon was a pack hunter from all of this. Probably because it couldn't really add anything new.

sci-hub.do/10.1007/s10914-016-9321-5

[smedz]

Nov 2, 2020 4:36:59 GMT 5 Infinity Blade said:

Borophagines were actually stated to have had forelimbs as powerful as those of extant ambushing carnivorans (i.e. most felids), although it's also been found that some species seem to plot closer to cursorial hunters than others. E. haydeni is apparently more on the cursorial side, although E. saevus also shows some adaptive differences from its close relative.

This study, for the record, didn't add anything helpful in determining whether or not Epicyon was a pack hunter from all of this. Probably because it couldn't really add anything new.

sci-hub.do/10.1007/s10914-016-9321-5

So could Epicyon haydeni have grappled using the forelimbs with prey like a big cat?

[Infinity Blade]

If I'm interpreting that paper correctly, it probably could to some extent, but it would have been a bit less adept at it than some of its relatives, and all borophagines were probably not quite as good as it as big cats.