Seed predation is restricted to mammals, birds, and insects but is found in almost all terrestrial ecosystems. Paramecium, a predatory ciliate, feeding on bacteria Among crustaceans, lobsters, crabs, shrimps and barnacles are predators, and in turn crustaceans are preyed on by nearly all cephalopods (including octopuses, squid and cuttlefish). In marine environments, most cnidarians (e.g., jellyfish, hydroids), ctenophora (comb jellies), echinoderms (e.g., sea stars, sea urchins, sand dollars, and sea cucumbers) and flatworms are predatory. Spiders are predatory, as well as other terrestrial invertebrates such as scorpions centipedes some mites, snails and slugs nematodes and planarian worms. In some species such as the alderfly, only the larvae are predatory (the adults do not eat). They are common among insects, including mantids, dragonflies, lacewings and scorpionflies. While examples of predators among mammals and birds are well known, predators can be found in a broad range of taxa including arthropods. Among invertebrates, social wasps (yellowjackets) are both hunters and scavengers of other insects. Scavengers, organisms that only eat organisms found already dead, are not predators, but many predators such as the jackal and the hyena scavenge when the opportunity arises. When animals eat seeds ( seed predation or granivory) or eggs ( egg predation), they are consuming entire living organisms, which by definition makes them predators. Animals that graze on phytoplankton or mats of microbes are predators, as they consume and kill their food organisms but herbivores that browse leaves are not, as their food plants usually survive the assault.
However, since they typically do not kill their hosts, they are now often thought of as parasites. Micropredators are small animals that, like predators, feed entirely on other organisms they include fleas and mosquitoes that consume blood from living animals, and aphids that consume sap from living plants. There are other difficult and borderline cases. Relation of predation to other feeding strategies A predator can be defined to differ from a parasitoid in that it has many prey, captured over its lifetime, where a parasitoid's larva has just one, or at least has its food supply provisioned for it on just one occasion. Zoologists generally call this a form of parasitism, though conventionally parasites are thought not to kill their hosts. A parasitoid, such as an ichneumon wasp, lays its eggs in or on its host the eggs hatch into larvae, which eat the host, and it inevitably dies.
However, the concept of predation is broad, defined differently in different contexts, and includes a wide variety of feeding methods and some relationships that result in the prey's death are not generally called predation.
ARE RABBITS APEX PREDATORS DRIVER
Predation has been a major driver of evolution since at least the Cambrian period.ĭefinition Spider wasps paralyse and eventually kill their hosts, but are considered parasitoids, not predators.Īt the most basic level, predators kill and eat other organisms. Sometimes predator and prey find themselves in an evolutionary arms race, a cycle of adaptations and counter-adaptations. Predation has a powerful selective effect on prey, and the prey develop antipredator adaptations such as warning coloration, alarm calls and other signals, camouflage, mimicry of well-defended species, and defensive spines and chemicals. Other adaptations include stealth and aggressive mimicry that improve hunting efficiency. Many predatory animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate, have sharp claws or jaws to grip, kill, and cut up their prey. Predators are adapted and often highly specialized for hunting, with acute senses such as vision, hearing, or smell. If the attack is successful, the predator kills the prey, removes any inedible parts like the shell or spines, and eats it. This may involve ambush or pursuit predation, sometimes after stalking the prey. When prey is detected, the predator assesses whether to attack it. Predators may actively search for or pursue prey or wait for it, often concealed. It is distinct from scavenging on dead prey, though many predators also scavenge it overlaps with herbivory, as seed predators and destructive frugivores are predators. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill the host) and parasitoidism (which always does, eventually). Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. Social predators: meat ants cooperate to feed on a cicada far larger than themselves. Solitary predator: a polar bear feeds on a bearded seal it has killed. For other uses, see Predator (disambiguation) and Prey (disambiguation).
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