ping Stahntii - Reply to Questions

It sure explains why most people in leadership are cruel, greedy, and two-faced. Is that part of being a predator too?

You have the wrong ideas.

Cruelty is not like a Predator.
A Predator does not use any more violence than is strictly necessary. Anymore than that is a waste of energy that offsets the energy gained by the hunt. A Predator kills because it needs to kill, not because it enjoys to kill. A Predator inflicts pain and harm because it's unavoidable in a killing, not because it is a goal in itself. The most advanced Predators even kill without pain: a Shark can eat a prey entire; a Spitting Snake can introduce venom without a bite and the venom has to kill instantly because if it didn't, the prey would manage to run away and die off the reach of the snake. Young Predators learn through play among themselves, through watching the adults, and through starting with smaller prey, before moving on to greater game, because of this. If they tried too much too soon, they would need an extraordinary amount of violence to succeed.

Greed is not like a Predator.
Predators compete, and have to compete with each other, because prey is not unlimited. However, greed as humans would understand it is opposed to the instinct of a Predator. A Predator doesn't hunt more than it can consume because it would be wasteful use of energy, and it doesn't accumulate because it would only benefit scavengers and bugs of rotten food. A satiated Predator leaves alone any more prey. Whether the prey survives and even reproduces, or whether it falls to another Predator is not relevant.

Two-faced is also not like a Predator.
Predators are not hypocritical. From birth it is known that they nourish from live kills and they live their whole life doing as they do, not as they say. From birth prey know what they have to guard about.

To be a true predator, must you be able to get whatever you want by whatever means available and at the expense of the welfare of anyone (including other predators) that may be in the way?

In theory, yes, but life is almost never so complicated. Each Predator has their advantage: superior sight, ear, heat detection, electric field detection, speed, strength, cunning, intelligence, and they use this advantage primarily and almost exclusively. This means that prey can also build defenses aimed at the weakest link of the Predator's skill set. So it will not be "whatever means available" but the means learned and perfected by the Predator.

Or do they concern themselves with the welfare of other fellow predators? Or perhaps for a predator to show concern or mercy for another predator, the other predator must, eg., be a close relative, etc.?

Often enough Predators make groups. It is not many that can and successfully do hunt alone. Tigers and most Snakes being the most known exceptions that always hunt alone. Sometimes they are exclusively family groups composed of adults and young children, most Felines and many Bears and Foxes, for instance, but other Predators make packs where relatedness is looser and which can include more than one family line or more than two generations. This happens with Wolves and Dolphins. Even in cases where the packs are more like temporary alliances, they work to benefit all the Predators by the force they get by helping each other, as in Sharks and Crocodiles.

But I think you haven't considered the most important thing here. In all cases I have mentioned, as I said, Predators have to kill their prey. We are unique in one sense, but one which should be salient. If we went hunting freely, we would not only not be killing children. We would be actively benefiting them. Instead of the end of the hunt being blood, it would be smiles and laughter.