Although La Brea is the most fossiliferous Pleistocene carnivore
locality in North America, boasting large sample sizes of taxa less
abundant elsewhere [8–9], inferred dietary behavior of extinct
carnivorans there may not be entirely representative of these taxa
throughout their distributions and over time. For example, the
abundance of S. fatalis at La Brea may suggest heightened
kleptoparasitism (i.e., the appropriation of a carcass from another
predator) from the less abundant, although larger P. atrox, roughly
analogous to occasional observations of lions appropriating
carcasses from cheetahs today [45]. This sort of behavior could
also explain why P. atrox and S. fatalis have microwear textures
most similar to extant cheetahs and African lions, respectively;
however, incidences of kleptoparasitism in cheetahs are typically
infrequent (e.g., 3.5% in Kwandwe Private Game Reserve and
12% in Kruger National Park)[45–46]. Further, the lack of P. atrox
individuals with Asfc values greater than 2.5 (approximately onequarter
to half the mean values of spotted hyenas and African
lions, respectively; Table 1) suggests that durophagous behavior
was probably rare in American lions even if kleptoparasitism
occurred. While the extinct carnivores may have been provided
with prey items from the tar pits for their last meal at La Brea
(prior to succumbing themselves), dental microwear textures