Large cats, canids, bears, and hyenas create distinctive types of damage when they gnaw bones. This paper describes the diagnostic characteristics of damage done by each taxon to femora and tibiae of herbivores whose body weights are 300 kg or more. Pleistocene and Recent fossil collections that include gnawed bones might provide data on the presence of carnivores whose own remains are not found in the collections. Information might also be gained about predator and scavenger utilization of prey carcasses, often a reflection of prey vulnerability or availability in past communities.

Based on inspection of gnawing damage done to bones of modern prey animals, sets of typical damage types or patterns are recognized for certain elements. The presence of these damage patterns suggests carnivore activity even when bones exhibit no identifiable tooth marks or other obvious sign of gnawing. Observations are made of these damage types on bones of Pleistocene and Recent North American mammals, including Bison, proboscidean, Alces, Equus, Cervus, and Rangifer. Damage to the following elements is briefly described: antlers, vertebrae, scapulae, humeri, ulnae, radii, femora, tibiae, metapodials, and innominates.

More than 125 carcasses and skeletal remains of wild bison, moose, and whitetail deer were examined in the field. Most were from closely documented episodes of predation, mass drownings, or other natural causes of death. Predictable and unusual kinds of bone and carcass utilization by timber wolves and bears are described. The variables emphasized include sectioningof carcasses by feeding predators, distribution and dispersal of bones at kill sites, gnaw damage to bones in homesites, kill sites and scavenge sites, potential or observed survival of bones at sites of prey carcasses, and the patterns of scatter or accumulation of skeletal remains in moose and bison ranges due to predation or other natural causes of death. Variations in gnaw damage to bones and utilization of carcasses by carnivores reflect significant aspects of predator-prey interactions, and can be deciphered by ecologists interpreting either fossil or modern assemblages of bones.

African bush elephants inhabiting the undeveloped Kalahari Sands region of Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe are subject to episodic mortality during droughts.We monitored the drought-related mortality of elephants in Hwange National Park over the course of an extended drought between 1993 and 1995. The drought-related mortality of elephants was higher during 1994 than 1995, despite signi¢cantly higher rainfall in 1994 than 1995. We found signi¢cant di¡erences in the age-speci¢c mortality of elephants during 1994 and 1995. The cumulative mortality pro¢le from this study di¡ered signi¢cantly from previous die-o¡s at this site, with a higher mortalityamong adult age classes than that reported from earlier studies in Hwange National Park. The e¡ective duration of the rainy season, not total annual precipitation, appears to be the best predictor for the potential severity of drought mortality among elephants in the Kalahari Sands habitats of Hwange National Park.