New insights into cave hyena ethology and the implications for territorial competition with hominins in Late Pleistocene north‐west Europe: the case of Caverne Marie‐Jeanne (Belgium)

Abstract

Megacarnivore behaviours shape ecological dynamics between their prey and competitors and therefore play a key role in structuring ecosystems. In Late Pleistocene Eurasia, hominins and hyenas were sympatric predators. Since the first discoveries of Crocuta c. spelaea in the 19th century, this 'bone-crushing' species has been identified at most Palaeolithic sites and has inspired many taphonomic studies. Nonetheless, there is still very little known about its reproductive, social and spatial behaviours. We believe that exploring the complexity of the cave hyena's ethology is a way to better understand spatial relationships and niche sharing/partitioning between hominins and other top predators in Pleistocene ecosystems. This paper focuses on the study of Caverne Marie-Jeanne Layer 4 (Hastière, Belgium), one of the best-preserved palaeontological sites in the region. The exceptional number of hyena neonates in this assemblage (minimum number of individuals >300) has led us to describe, for the first time, a Late Pleistocene hyena birth den that was reused over a long period of time around 47.6-43k a BP. By bridging the gap between archaeology and palaeontology, we explore the potential of carnivore socio-spatial organisation and denning habits as an ecological proxy and discuss how these new unique data could help us further understand hominins' spatial strategy in southern Belgium.

New Insights Into Late Pleistocene Cave Hyena Chronology and Population History—the Case of Perspektywiczna Cave, Poland

“…Analogies may be found e.g. in another Late Pleistocene hyena den in Caverne Marie-Jeanne (Belgium) that was interpreted to be regularly reused as a birth den over a long period of time, around 47.6–43 ka cal BP (Jimenez et al 2022).…”

The faunal assemblage from La Sassa cave (Latium, Italy): Environmental perspective of a Late Pleistocene cave hyena – Brown bear den

“…The presence within faeces of small-medium bone fragments is also typical of only a few Late Pleistocene European large carnivores, such as cave hyena, wolves and cave lions, but it is a common cave hyena behaviour to swallow and regurgitate large bones partially digested such as those recovered in La Sassa (Fig. 4B; Fourvel et al, 2014;Jimenez et al, 2022;Linares-Matás et al, 2021;Suitcliffe, 1970). The most common species at La Sassa cave is the red deer.…”

Site settlement patterns during MIS 3 in the Southeast of France. The lithic assemblages of two phases of occupation (levels 4.1 and 4.2) at the Abri du Maras

“…During some periods, such as MIS 4-3, dense populations of diverse carnivores occupied Western Europe, in connection and in competition with humans (e.g., Discamps, 2014;Fourvel et al, 2015;Rosell et al, 2017Rosell et al, , 2019Elalouf et al, 2021;Zilio et al, 2021;Jimenez et al, 2022).…”