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Predation is a biological interaction in which one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. 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).
Circular dendrogram of feeding behaviours A mosquito drinking blood (hematophagy) from a human (note the droplet of plasma being expelled as a waste) A rosy boa eating a mouse whole A red kangaroo eating grass The robberfly is an insectivore, shown here having grabbed a leaf beetle An American robin eating a worm Hummingbirds primarily drink nectar A krill filter feeding A Myrmicaria brunnea ...
Consumer–resource interactions are the core motif of ecological food chains or food webs, [1] and are an umbrella term for a variety of more specialized types of biological species interactions including prey-predator (see predation), host-parasite (see parasitism), plant-herbivore and victim-exploiter systems.
Hyperpredation has been recorded in an ecosystem involving a bird (native prey), a cat (alien predator), and a rabbit (alien prey). Hyperpredation, also known as hypopredation, is when a generalist predator increases its predation pressure as a result of the introduction of a substitute prey. [1]
An example of a generalist is a mouse, which consumes a large variety of seeds, grains, and nuts. [12] In contrast, predators with relatively short S 1 s are still better off choosing to eat only prey 1. These types of animals are defined as specialists and have very exclusive diets in nature. [11]
The definition of preference will therefore impact on understanding switching. The most common definition of preference is the relationship between the ratio of prey in the environment and the ratio of prey in a predator's diet. It has been independently proposed a number of times and is described by the equation:
For example, exploitative interactions between a predator and prey can result in the extinction of the victim (the prey, in this case), as the predator, by definition, kills the prey, and thus reduces its population. [2] Another effect of these interactions is in the coevolutionary "hot" and "cold spots" put forth by geographic mosaic theory ...
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