>> What prey canines hunt isn't all that hard-coded, they're adaptive to a fair degree. I would be reasonably confident the new dire wolves would hunt deer and moose if given the choice... probably poorly at first since they have no-one to teach them. <<
That's about what I figured. Honestly, I would've started the cubs on live feeder mice at 2-3 months, then offered things like ground-nesting birds or rabbits. Once they have the idea that this is food on the hoof, predators rarely have a problem extrapolating to other prey species and will select what prey they prefer. Interestingly, some cats are devout aerialists who love hunting birds, while others ignore them in favor of mice or more rarely fish. Then there are the rare cats who are essentially big-game hunters and go after squirrels or rabbits. I've even seen some farm cats pride-hunting like lions, effectively. Much the same is true of dogs. Some like birds, others prefer mice or rabbits. So I expect wolves are the same.
>> That said, I hope Colossal use their tech to do something about the genetic diversity of cheetahs as well. There is a gene-pool in need of some fresh blood, and we have well preserved ancient mummies of cheetahs we could extract DNA from. <<
>>They could even practice using domestic cats first.<<
The closer the better. I'd recommend using a larger, plentiful cat. Jaguarundi and cougar are both least concern and the closest relatives of cheetahs.
Thoughts
That's about what I figured. Honestly, I would've started the cubs on live feeder mice at 2-3 months, then offered things like ground-nesting birds or rabbits. Once they have the idea that this is food on the hoof, predators rarely have a problem extrapolating to other prey species and will select what prey they prefer. Interestingly, some cats are devout aerialists who love hunting birds, while others ignore them in favor of mice or more rarely fish. Then there are the rare cats who are essentially big-game hunters and go after squirrels or rabbits. I've even seen some farm cats pride-hunting like lions, effectively. Much the same is true of dogs. Some like birds, others prefer mice or rabbits. So I expect wolves are the same.
>> That said, I hope Colossal use their tech to do something about the genetic diversity of cheetahs as well. There is a gene-pool in need of some fresh blood, and we have well preserved ancient mummies of cheetahs we could extract DNA from. <<
Yeah, cheetahs are fucked.
>>They could even practice using domestic cats first.<<
The closer the better. I'd recommend using a larger, plentiful cat. Jaguarundi and cougar are both least concern and the closest relatives of cheetahs.