Scientists have developed a new method to investigate links between top predator diets and the amount of microplastic they consume through their prey.
Environment
Sep 25, 2019
0
8
In the arms race between predators and prey, each evolves more and more sophisticated ways of catching or escaping from the other. Rachel Page, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Ximena Bernal, ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 25, 2019
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259
The recent introduction of healthy Tasmanian Devils to Maria Island was initially bad news for the local possum population, a species blissfully ignorant of the predator's existence.
Plants & Animals
Sep 23, 2019
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4
Scientists at Newcastle University have shown that patterns—particularly stripes which are easy to spot when an animal is still—can also help conceal speeding prey.
Plants & Animals
Sep 11, 2019
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16
Let's be clear—tigers are perilously close to extinction.
Plants & Animals
Aug 15, 2019
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26
Scientists have developed a new method to investigate links between top predator diets and the amount of microplastic they consume through their prey.
Ecology
Aug 13, 2019
0
5
On moonless nights in a tropical forest, bats slice through the inky darkness, snatching up insects resting silently on leaves—a seemingly impossible feat. New experiments at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 01, 2019
0
843
Call it the "Little Bog of Horrors." In what is believed to be a first for North America, biologists at the University of Guelph have discovered that meat-eating pitcher plants in Ontario's Algonquin Park wetlands consume ...
Ecology
Jun 08, 2019
6
3059
A new model is providing insight into the impact of invasive lionfish on coral reefs in the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea. The venomous predatory fish has invaded more than 7.3 million square kilometres in the Atlantic ...
Ecology
Jun 06, 2019
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6
Invading predators can devastate an ecosystem. In fact, a leading cause of extinction is the introduction of predators into an isolated system like an island or a lake. The destruction is usually blamed on the predator's ...
Ecology
Jun 05, 2019
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206
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.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
