There is a tendency to think that carnivores, given their precarious place at the top of the food chain, are the most at risk from extinction. Yet over the course of history it is likely that the opposite has been the case. Herbivores are often more specialist – evolved to suit a particular environment, to eat a particular plant. Carnivores, on the other hand, have tended to retain a more general set of attributes: teeth that could cut as well as chew; physical agility and acute senses, making them less vulnerable to changes in environment. After all, meat remains meat through even the most dramatic of environmental upheavals; whereas grassland might be converted to forest – with serious consequences for the herbivores that are grazing specialists.