Belgium in the late Ice Age (lasting from 2.5 million to 11.5 thousand years ago, i.e. the end of the Ice Age), that is, about 40 thousand years ago, was located in a specific and very important place in Europe. There was a vast area of land here, including the areas between Great Britain and continental Europe, now covered by the North Sea.
This is the period when the glacier moved completely south. It covered all of northern Europe, including large areas of Poland. It also covered the British Isles, but the southern part was free. Also, the areas of Belgium and the bottom of today's southern part of the North Sea were located on the bastion of the ice front, and here many animals typical of the Ice Age lived. They also included wolves whose remains were often found in these areas, and they indicated that wolf packs did not have an easy life at that time and were not among the dominant predators in Ice Age Europe.
The areas extending between southern England, the dry bed of the present-day English Channel and the North Sea, France and the Benelux countries were initially called the Mammoth Steppe. Large herds of these large mammals moved at the foot of the glacier, perhaps migrating with weather changes. There may have been many large predators living near the herds of mammoths, preying on weaker, younger individuals, or other Ice Age mammals grazing in these steppes.
We associate the Ice Ages with powerful saber-toothed tigers, but they were relatively rare. The typical great American megafauna, Smilodon, did not exist in Europe, but other cats with fangs like sabers lived here. These included Macharirodons and Homoteria. These predators were found in Europe at the time (including Poland), but excavations conducted on the Belgian mammoth plains suggest that other hunters were more numerous here.
The cat that dominated the Ice Age landscape, perhaps following groups of mammoths, was the cave lion. If they had hunted in packs like modern lions, they could have even brought down adult mammoths – in fact, one theory posits that clashes with megafauna were the reason lions developed a completely original method of pack hunting, which is quite unusual for cats. They are usually solitary hunters.
Present The weight of African lions usually does not exceed 200 kilograms and their length is three meters (The record holder weighs 375 kg, but that's extreme.) Tigers of the largest subspecies of the Siberian tiger reach three and a half meters in length and weigh 300 kg (the record holder exceeded 400 kg). In case The largest saber-toothed tiger found in Oregon in 2021, we are talking about its weight of about 390 kg and its length of more than three meters.
The length of a cave lion can exceed three and a half meters, and its weight averages 320 kg Perhaps the most handsome specimens exceeded 400 kg. There is much evidence that it exceeded the size of modern lions and tigers, and perhaps also saber-toothed cats.
However, despite their large size and likely following herds of mammoths to capture sick, weak, or young animals, cave lions relied on very different prey for the rest of the season. Research in Belgium has shown that the basis of their diet consisted of horses, reindeer and other deer, which were abundant in these areas at that time. Herds of cave lions may have hunted large, migratory groups of reindeer just as lions today hunt wildebeest or buffalo.
There was another large predator living in what is now Western Europe. this Cave hyena – very close to today's hyenas, especially the spotted hyena, and therefore a typical hyena of the African savannah, where her distinctive laugh can often be heard. So much so that the cave hyena is sometimes viewed as only a modern subspecies. However, it was a subspecies or megaspecies, much larger than modern hyenas. The croquette from Africa reaches a maximum weight of 85 kg, while the spotted hyena reaches a maximum weight of 180 kg. It was twice as big and stronger.
Furthermore, they also had a completely different way of life and hunting, because Pleistocene hyenas were less likely to rely on carrion than hyenas are today. They also actively hunted for very large prey.
Research in Belgium indicates that the food of these hyenas consists of large animals such as woolly rhinos, primitive bison and even mammoths. Rhinos living in Africa today have little reason to fear hyenas, but Ice Age rhinos should have been on their guard. They have been the target of attacks by these predators. Hyenas used their relatively large strength and powerful jaws to chase and bring down prey. They were undoubtedly among the most dangerous predators in Europe 40,000 years ago, to a similar extent as cave lions, although they filled a slightly different trophic niche.
In this case, the wolves living in Europe were completely marginal predators, unable to compete with such powerful rivals. CJust 40,000 years ago, wolves were far from being the main predators of the European tundra. Even the typical cooperation of dogs while hunting did not give them a sufficient advantage. They clearly lost the competition. It was a time when dogs could not yet speak of evolutionary success and the hunting arms race was turning to their detriment. They had less strength and weaker jaws.
The beginning of wolves' success occurred between 14,000 and 11,000 years ago. At that time, serious climatic changes occurred in Europe, which had an impact on animals. The cave hyena suffered the most, began to lose its habitat, its European population was cut off from that of Africa, and it finally became extinct several thousand years ago. The extinction of the cave hyena coincides with the decline of grasslands on the European continent about 12,500 years ago. Tundra and steppe disappeared, and the area of coniferous and mixed forests increased. This did not suit the hyenas. In these circumstances, they lost competition with wolf and man. Cave hyena numbers began to decline about 20,000 years ago, and in Western Europe they disappeared completely between 14,000 and 11,000 years ago.. Its extinction in Spain and the Balkans occurred even earlier.
Cave lions became almost entirely focused on reindeer, and in this case the wolf faced a new situation where there were more forests than plains, plenty of game, and no longer had such serious competition. It is believed that the disappearance of cave hyenas and a change in the dietary preferences of remaining hunters paved the way for wolves to take over Europe. Today there are no lions, hyenas, saber-toothed tigers or any other tigers. The wolf stands alone as an apex predator, and in recent years has returned to its former place in the ecosystem after many decades of killing and extermination of the species.
What is particularly interesting is that the wolf's dominance of the European ecosystem coincides with the wolf establishing a completely unique relationship with humans. The domestication of the wolf, which gave rise to the dog, may have helped in the process of creating the ideal predator. Lions, hyenas and other Ice Age hunters had no such support, and wolves gradually dominated the field. Today, they are deciding on regulating the number of animals in European forests.
