Steppe lion remains imported by Ice Age spotted hyenas into the Late Pleistocene Perick Caves hyena den in northern Germany

Abstract

Upper Pleistocene remains of the Ice Age steppe lion Panthera leo spelaea (Goldfuss, 1810) have been found in the Perick Caves, Sauerland Karst, NW Germany. Bones from many hyenas and their imported prey dating from the Lower to Middle Weichselian have also been recovered from the Perick Cave hyena den. These are commonly cracked or exhibit deep chew marks. The absence of lion cub bones, in contrast to hyena and cave bear cub remains in the Perick Caves, and other caves of northern Germany, excludes the possibility that P. leo spelaea used the cave for raising cubs. Only in the Wilhelms Cave was a single skeleton of a cub found in a hyena den. Evidence of the chewing, nibbling and cracking of lion bones and crania must have resulted from the importation and destruction of lion carcasses (4% of the prey fauna). Similar evidence was preserved at other hyena den caves and open air sites in Germany. The bone material from the Perick and other Central European caves points to antagonistic hyena and lion conflicts, similar to clashes of their modern African relatives.