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News tagged with prey

Zooarchaeological study indicating hominids already practiced sophisticated hunting techniques in East Asia

More than ten thousands of bone fragments were recovered from the Lingjing site, Henan Province during 2005 and 2006. By taking statistical analyses of the skeletal elements of the two predominant species ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created May 23, 2012 | popularity 3.6 / 5 (5) | comments 0

Bats: What sounds good doesn't always taste good

Bats use a combination of cues in their hunting sequence - capture, handling and consumption - to decide which prey to attack, catch and consume and which ones they are better off leaving alone or dropping ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 21, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Movement patterns of endangered turtle vary from Pacific to Atlantic

The movement patterns of critically endangered leatherback turtles vary greatly depending on whether the animals live in the North Atlantic or the Eastern Pacific, with implications for feeding behavior and ...

Biology / Ecology

created May 16, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Big-mouthed babies drove the evolution of giant island snakes

Some populations of tiger snakes stranded for thousands of years on tiny islands surrounding Australia have evolved to be giants, growing to nearly twice the size of their mainland cousins. Now, new research ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 15, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 5 | with audio podcast

Carnivorous plants rely on the services and wastes of a symbiotic ant for nutrition

In a mutualistic relationship between an ant species and a carnivorous plant, the ants contribute to both prey capture and prey digestion of their host-plant and provide significant amounts of nutrients derived from their ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 09, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

How the pufferfish got its beak

The origin of the unusual beak of pufferfishes has been discovered, giving new clues about how such unique structures can evolve, scientists report today.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 07, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 8

Escalating arms race: Predatory sea urchins drive evolution

(Phys.org) -- Nature teems with examples of evolutionary arms races between predators and prey, with the predator species gradually evolving a new mode of attack for each defensive adaptation that arises in ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Apr 17, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Hawks win, doves pay for being odd

(Phys.org) -- In a crowd, looking different can be dangerous, at least if you’re a pigeon.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Apr 13, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Electric fish charges up research on animal behavior

An electric eel can generate enough current to stun its prey, just like a Taser. Weakly electric fish can also generate electricity, but not enough to do any harm. "Weakly electric fish are unique in that they produce and ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Apr 10, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Task force recommends reducing global harvest of 'forage fish'

A task force that conducted one of the most comprehensive analyses of global "forage fish" populations issued its report this week, which strongly recommends implementing more conservative catch limits for these crucial prey ...

Biology / Ecology

created Apr 03, 2012 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Megalara garuda: the King of Wasps

A new and unusual wasp species has been discovered during an expedition to the Indonesian island of Sulawesi.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Mar 23, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Clash of the crayfish: Why the Americans are winning

Aggressive American signal crayfish are threatening Britain's native white-clawed crayfish populations because they have better resistance to parasites and are less fussy about what they eat.

Biology / Ecology

created Mar 15, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Better understanding of triangular hormonal relationship between crop, fungus and parasite

Parasitic plants ruin crops and threaten the food production for some three hundred million people not only in Africa, but also elsewhere in the world. Developing crops are increasingly falling prey to these ...

Biology / Biotechnology

created Mar 08, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Seeing without eyes: Hydra stinging cells respond to light

In the absence of eyes, the fresh water polyp, Hydra magnipapillata, nevertheless reacts to light. They are diurnal, hunting during the day, and are known to move, looping end over end, or contract, in res ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Mar 04, 2012 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (5) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Climate change study warns against one-off experiments

(PhysOrg.com) -- Climate change research conducted by the University of Aberdeen and Marine Scotland Science highlights the risks of conducting an experiment only once.

Space & Earth / Environment

created Feb 22, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (4) | comments 2

Predation

In ecology, predation describes a biological interaction where a predator (an organism that is hunting) feeds on its prey, (the organism that is attacked). Predators may or may not kill their prey prior to feeding on them, but the act of predation always results in the death of the prey. The other main category of consumption is detritivory, the consumption of dead organic material (detritus). It can at times be difficult to separate the two feeding behaviors, for example where parasitic species prey on a host organism and then lay their eggs on it for their offspring to feed on its decaying corpse. The key characteristic of predation however is the predator's direct impact on the prey population. On the other hand, detritivores simply eat what is available and have no direct impact on the "donor" organism(s).

Selective pressures imposed on one another has led to an evolutionary arms race between prey and predator, resulting in various antipredator adaptations.

For more information about Predation, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Related topics: fish , birds , insects , predators