Foraging ecology differences fail to predict carnivore responses to variation in a key prey across spatial scales

Foraging ecology is expected to shape how predators respond to variation in key prey, with specialist species predicted to track prey dynamics more closely than generalists. However, empirical tests of these expectations remain scarce in systems where prey availability varies strongly across both space and time. Here, we assess how three sympatric carnivores (European wildcat, red fox, and domestic cat) with contrasting foraging strategies respond to spatiotemporal variation in the abundance of a shared key prey species, the Montane water vole. We used a 10-year dataset from mountain grazing systems in northern Spain, where water vole abundance varied among years and was highly heterogeneous within meadows. We analysed the responses of the three carnivore species at two spatial scales: broad-scale temporal variation and fine-scale spatial heterogeneity. Contrary to expectations, responses did not follow a simple specialist–generalist gradient. Red foxes closely tracked interannual variation in vole abundance. Wildcats showed a weaker, delayed response, whereas domestic cats exhibited no detectable association with vole abundance over time. In contrast, all three species exhibited a strong and consistent aggregative response, concentrating their activity in patches with locally high vole abundance. This combination of divergent broad-scale responses and convergent fine-scale aggregation reveals a pronounced scale dependence in predator–prey coupling. The results highlight the importance of explicitly integrating multiple spatial scales when assessing predator–prey dynamics, and caution against drawing inferences from single-scale analyses in heterogeneous ecosystems.