Yukon Study Identifies 23,000-Year-Old Ice-Age Cheetahs, Finds Fish-Based Arctic Diet
Updated
Updated · CBC Sports · Sep 4
Yukon Study Identifies 23,000-Year-Old Ice-Age Cheetahs, Finds Fish-Based Arctic Diet
3 articles · Updated · CBC Sports · Sep 4
Summary
DNA and isotope tests on bones from Bluefish Caves and a northern Yukon mine showed the animals were extinct American cheetahs, not the pumas or cougars researchers had first assumed.
Stable-isotope analysis found the Yukon cats lived almost exclusively on fish—especially salmon—an unusual diet that helps explain how they survived in Arctic Beringia without pronghorn.
That shift likely reflected heavy competition with larger predators including Beringian lions, scimitar cats and short-faced bears, making abundant salmon a lower-risk food source.
The Current Biology study also found Miracinonyx was genetically closer to North American pumas than African cheetahs and had low genetic diversity, a trait researchers say may have contributed to extinction.
The findings extend the species' known ecological range and have prompted one Yukon paleontologist to argue this northern population deserves the name 'Yukon cheetah.'