If prey gave predators the corpses of members which had naturally died, would predators be able to subsist without killing the prey?
Both the prey (plural) and predator (singular) are intelligent and sapient.
The predators are semi-solitary - they meet up occasionally to conduct rudimentary trade (think bartering), find mates and raise a family. They'll teach their children hunting skills and tool use, but they spend the rest of their lives alone. They don't mate for life and don't maintain strong ties to family. They don't have stationary homes and wander around instead, creating and discarding simple shelters as they go. They can hand-sew bags or preserve meat using salt, which gives you an idea of their technology. They haven't learnt to make weapons because they already have extremely powerful claws and jaws.
Note: prey is plural here. There are multiple prey species which are all intelligent and sapient. I will give an overview of their abilities here. 376
Their tool use, like the predators, is fairly basic.
Among their abilities are hand-sewn clothes and bags, simple food preservation using honey or salt, and the creation of items such as boxes or simple beds out of wood and cloth. The prey (plural) usually live in stationary homes, typically rough log cabin-like structures made out of branches, or systems of burrows or caves. Their homes are scattered around, not organised into villages and towns. They aren't semi-solitary like the predator, but they don't have much of a social structure either. They usually live in small family units which share one house. Different family units may meet up to find mates or conduct barter/trade.
The predators are obligate carnivores, so they can't eat plant matter to stave off hunger. The predators can preserve meat using salt to avoid killing for longer.
Let's say, between the two societies, they come up with this system:
* Each week, a few of the prey species die natural deaths.
* The bodies of these dead members are left in a clearing, which the predators know about.
* The predators collect the dead bodies and eat them.
No killing is involved, and the predators and prey can maintain friendly relationships because they don't live in fear of one another.
In your answer, if possible, please include population sizes and prey mortality rates that would make this system feasible. It doesn't need to be hard science; just a rough estimate.
Edit: The comments made me realise that I'm probably going to have to go back to the drawing board on this one. However, I'm leaving the question up for posterity's sake. 1022