I think that might be geographic dependent, for instance there's nothing around here that would predate cats, which would suggest they are, locally at least, apex by default.

There aren't many wildcats left here though, maybe if there were we'd see larger predators move in and push cats down the food chain, so I can see the mesopredator argument.

[–] Noodle07@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

No foxes?

[–] notabot@lemm.ee 3 points 5 months ago

I don't think foxes typically go for cats around here, and, as far as I'm aware, not much eats them either. We don't have any of the larger predators that might kill them just to remove competition either, so I suppose foxes are apex predators here too.

On the other hand, I can see either a cat or a fox being a tasty morsel for a bear, so tge whole apex/meso distinction is certainly location dependent.