Testing Predictions of the Prey of Lion Derived From Modeled Prey Preferences
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract: Apex predators are often threatened with extinction, and reintroduction is one method conservation managers are using to secure their persistence. Yet the ability to predict what these predators will eat upon reintroduction is lacking. Here we test predictions of the diet of the lion ( Panthera leo ), derived from dietary electivity index and optimality theory, using independent data collected from reintroduced and resident populations. We solved the Jacobs’ index preference equation for each prey species of the lion using values calculated by Hayward and Kerley (2005) and prey abundance data from 4 reintroduction sites and one resident lion population over several years. We then compared these estimates with actual kill data gathered from each site and time period, using the log‐likelihood ratio and linear regression. The model precisely predicted the observed number of kills in 9 of the 13 tests. There was a highly significant linear relationship between the number of lion kills predicted to occur at a site and the number observed for all but one site (x̄ r 2 = 0.612; β = 1.03). Predicting predator diet will allow conservation managers to stop responding and start planning in advance for reintroductions and environmental variation. Furthermore, ensuring that sufficient food resources are available is likely to increase the success of reintroduction projects. In addition, managers responsible for threatened prey species will be able to predict the vulnerability of these species to predation in the event of predator reintroductions or changes in abundance. These methods are applicable to virtually all large predators that have been sufficiently studied.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame distilled prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. Learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and 10,348 direct Gemma labels. Candidate is the union of thresholded teacher heads; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels or direct frontier model labels.
Codex and Gemma teacher scores by category
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one teacher head, not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".