[Space] Social Pouncing Carnivores?

[ClayDowling]

Feline sociability is not a human-engineered feature. Most wild cats behave in that way.

Domestic cats definitely hunt in pairs, including dividing the prey. They'll also form partnerships with other species, including humans (I used to act as beater for my cats) and dogs.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire

Can anyone reference an example of a real-world (extinct or otherwise) species of highly social pouncing carnivores?

Teen-age girls?

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by ClayDowling

Domestic cats definitely hunt in pairs, including dividing the prey.

Yep. I've seen three cats hunting together, the old cats poking at the prey while the young, bitey one waited to pounce. I also saw two of my toms standing literally shoulder-to-shoulder to stare down an intruding cat. Cats are quite cooperative. All the talk of them being loners, selfish, etc. is humans not understanding cat behavior and projecting human motivations onto what they see.

[Lord Carnifex]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Teen-age girls?

Highly social, yes, but pouncig? In my experience, their strategy was more like 'bait and trap'.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by Lord Carnifex

Highly social, yes, but pouncig? In my experience, their strategy was more like 'bait and trap'.

Was thinking more of pouncing on other girls, in a "jumping all over" sense. :-\

[cybermancer2k1]

Originally Posted by DouglasCole

Teen-age girls?

Only if they make a successful Detect (Justin Bieber) roll.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by ClayDowling

Domestic cats definitely hunt in pairs, including dividing the prey.

So remember, if your cat leaves a mouse carcass on your pillow, that's just sharing.

[lwcamp]

For some additional oddness, you can get inter-species social carnivores. One well known example is coyotes and badgers. They team up to hunt ground squirrels and prairie dogs. Any rodents out in the open the coyote will run down, any that go to ground will be dug up by the badger.

Very similar is the partnership of groupers and moray eels. Morays hunt in crevices, groupers hunt in open water. The groupers chase prey into the crevices, and the morays flush the prey out into the open water. Prey has no place to hide. Similar associations are made between groupers and sea snakes.

(note - I am not claiming that any of these are necessarily pouncers)

Luke

EDIT - as an aside, GURPS space gives an example of Komodo dragons as the archetypical chaser. Hogwash. Dragons are as pouncer as they come. They wait in ambush along game trails, then take deer, swine, and dogs by surprise with an explosive burst of speed before the prey is even really aware of what is happening.

[quarkstomper]

Originally Posted by Lord Carnifex

Upon a walk through Wikipedia, it appears that ferrets are similar.

Yes, as the owner of five, I can tell you that Ferrets are definitely pouncers. It's fun watching them go into full "Weasel War-Dance" mode. And they are highly social creatures. They play together, snuggle together and even hunt together. I've seen two or more work together in chasing our cat. They will actually herd the cat, nipping at his heels until they chase it onto a chair or someplace out of their reach. The cat really hates it.

[ClayDowling]

Originally Posted by Anthony

So remember, if your cat leaves a mouse carcass on your pillow, that's just sharing.

She never leaves it on the pillow. If she leave it, the trophy will be displayed by the back door. If it's something new and exciting though, she wants to bring it in the house. Last week it was a bull frog (we just moved to a house on a pond, and we have a lot of frogs). She charged past me, into the house, and set it down next to the dining room table.