This one was a lot of fun, felt like old-school science fiction in all the mixing of alien species but with a more thoughtful modern tone.
The interplay between the predators, prey, and scavengers was very interesting.
I really liked the abilities that the protagonist had, and the use he put them to, concealing the weapon, masquerading as another species, surviving what would be a fatal biting wound to others, but also showed extra challenges it had, especially in pretending to actually have facial expressions, maintaining the texture of skin while something else is touching you, having less leverage to fight an attack because there are no hard bones. I figured that the gun was meant as a red herring by the protagonist, or it wouldn't have concealed it so poorly in the approach to him being searched, which totally made sense as a diversion and misdirection
I don't really think the predator was really kind. I think that it went to some lengths more than its brethren to assuage its own guilt, but if it really wanted to be kind it would pursue a non-sentient food source. If it really was important for the predators to keep the prey in check, well this has failed already, probably because predators keeping prey in check requires a somewhat closed system, if the prey are going to colonize planets on their own than they can easily escape that system, and prolific breeding makes the Lhasa naturally adept at colonizing--send a few dozen breeding pairs and you've got a booming colony in no time. If they REALLY cared about keeping the Lhasa population from killing planets, then getting the Lhasa to accept birth control would have to be a major factor in that, rather than just choosing to have another species eat as many as they can manage.
Anyway, good fun story.