From a certain point of view, any animal can end up being the prey of another, but this does not make it a prey as such. The prey animals are easily distinguishable from those that are not. In any case, the relationship between prey and predatory animals is essential for the balance of the different ecosystems.
Predator and Prey Animals
Within a food chain, prey animals are a link between primary producers (autotrophic organisms) and secondary consumers or tertiary. Going in this position in the food chain, they are usually herbivorous animals. However, secondary consumers, despite being carnivorous or omnivorous animals, can also be preyed upon by superpredators
But in addition, animals that are prey have a series of qualities for which we consider them as such. Next, we detail the characteristics of animals that are prey:
- They usually have their eyes placed on the sides of the face to have a wider vision In addition, each eye usually has more than one fovea, which is the point inside the eye where all the light rays converge and the image that is analyzed by the brain is formed. For example, pigeons have two foveas that allow them to see in front and behind at the same time.
- They have strategies to escape predation, such as camouflage, flight, living in social groups and having shelters, among others.
- They are animals that sleep little. For example, a cow sleeps about 4 hours a day, on the contrary, a cat can reach 18 hours of sleep without any problem.
- Some prey animals have glands that produce blinding, foul-smelling, or toxic substances to scare away predators.
On the other hand, predatory animals are mostly carnivorous animals, others are omnivorous animals. They may have claws, sharp teeth, strong jaws, venom, or other features that allow them to capture prey. They usually occupy the last links of the food chain.
Examples of predator and prey
Some species are general consumers, others are specialists. This means that certain predators may feed on many different prey and others feed on one or two speciesIn many cases, some of the species that form part of these "predator-prey" relationships have been maintaining this relationship for a long evolutionary period. Here are examples of some cases:
- Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) and European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus)
- Aardvark (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) and termites or ants (several species)
- Barbastela bat (Barbastella barbastellus) and moths (family Arctiidae)
Most predatory animals are generalists, being able to feed on various species:
- Lion (Panthera leo) and various species of ungulates
- Eagle owl (Bubo bubo) and rodents
- Great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) and several species of fish
More prey examples
In most ecosystems, for it to remain stable, there must be a greater population of prey than predators but, in turn, In turn, the prey population (mostly primary consumers) would wipe out the vegetable population. Below we will see examples of animals that are prey in some of the most important biomes on the planet:
Desert or semi-arid prey animals:
- Camel (Camelus sp.)
- Dromedary (Camelus dromedarius)
- Red-necked ostrich (Struthio camelus camelus)
- Addax (Addax nasomaculatus)
- Meerkat (Suricata suricatta)
Savannah prey animals:
- Gazella dorcas
- Thomson's Gazelle (Eudorcas thomsonii)
- Cape Oryx (Oryx gazella)
- Common Zebra (Equus quagga)
- Giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis)
- Black wildebeest (Connochaetes gnou)
- Mousebird (Colius striatus)
- Masked Weaver (Ploceus velatus)
- Common Estrilda or common coral beak (Estrilda astrild)
Prey Animals of Rainforests:
- Water Dwarf Musk Antelope (Hyemoschus aquaticus)
- Goliath beetle (Mecynorrhina ugandensis)
- Kissing fish (Helostoma temminkii)
- Sumatran elephant (Elephas maximus sumatranus)
- Blue-and-yellow Macaw (Ara ararauna)
- Capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris)
- Leaf butterfly (Gastropacha quercifolia)
- Citrus Papilio (Papilio demodocus)
- Black Spider Monkey (Ateles paniscus)
Prey animals of the poles:
- Emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri)
- King penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus)
- Rockhopper Penguin (Eudyptes chrysocome)
- Krill (Euphausia sp.)
- Harper seal (Pagophilus groenlandicus)
- Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus)
- Arctic hare (Lepus arcticus)
- Antarctic Pigeon (Chionis alba)
