![]() If the predator fails to capture the prey, it goes hungry, but it will not experience a large decline in fitness as a result of the interaction. When a predator chases after potential prey, the predator is running for its dinner. Such actions surprise the predator and give the prey time a few extra moments to escape. Examples include moths that flash brightly colored hindwings, lizards that drop their tails, and insect larvae that discharge slime. Some species buy extra time by distracting the predator. When a chase ensues, prey will typically survive if they stay out of reach until the predator tires. But when predators venture too close, prey will take flight, running or flying to escape. This lack of movement helps them better blend in with their background and inhibits the ability of the predator to find them. Behaviorally, they freeze after detecting the presence of a predator. Many, such as leaf insects, moths, a variety of frogs and small lizards, and herbivorous mammals, are cryptically colored to make them more difficult to see. In a similar manner, prey species exhibit traits that help them avoid detection or capture. Those that lie in wait tend to be camouflaged to avoid detection (Figure 1). Organisms that give chase are capable of short bursts of speed. Predators catch their prey either by pursuing potential prey or by ambushing them. Consider the ability of raptors to spot potential prey from over a kilometer away, the acute sense of smell of moles, the ability of owls to locate mice by sound, the ability of pit vipers to sense body heat when tracking prey, and the ability of bats and dolphins to echolocate. They also possess extremely acute sensory organs that help them to find potential prey. Predators exhibit traits such as sharp teeth, claws, and venom that enhance their ability to catch food. Traits associated with improved predation for predators and escaping predation for prey tend to be positively selected by natural selection. Genetically-determined traits that improve an organism’s ability to survive and reproduce will be passed on to its offspring. Individuals must both feed and avoid being eaten to survive and reproduce. Predation influences the fitness of both predators and prey. They play an important role in maintaining population sizes in microbial communities, which promotes the diversity of microorganisms and contributes to a stable community structure. On a microscopic scale, protozoa and bacteria also consume prey organisms. These plants absorb nutrients from the insects as they become available during digestion. Pitcher plants catch their prey in a pool of water containing digestive enzymes, whereas the Venus fly trap captures an insect between the two lobes of a leaf and seals the insect inside with digestive enzymes. Carnivorous plants, such as the Venus fly trap and the pitcher plant, consume insects. However, consumption of a seed kills the plant before it can grow, making seed consumption an example of predation. Under ideal circumstances, seeds grow to become plants. Seed consumption can sometimes constitute predation. This is, however, only part of the picture. Group predation also occurs with ants and social spiders. ![]() Such group predation is common among social carnivores such as lions, hyenas, and wolves. ![]() Less obvious carnivorous interactions involve many small individuals consuming a larger one. Think of wolves hunting moose, owls hunting mice, or shrews hunting worms and insects. The best-known examples of predation involve carnivorous interactions, in which one animal consumes another. At the level of the community, predation reduces the number of individuals in the prey population. At the level of the individual, the prey organism has an abrupt decline in fitness, as measured by its lifetime reproductive success, because it will never reproduce again. Predation influences organisms at two ecological levels. Predation provides energy to prolong the life and promote the reproduction of the organism that does the killing, the predator, to the detriment of the organism being consumed, the prey. In predation, one organism kills and consumes another.
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