predator

Examples of predator in the following topics:

• Predation, Herbivory, and the Competitive Exclusion Principle

  • An animal that hunts, kills, and eats other animals is called a predator.
  • Examples of predators include tigers, snakes, and hawks.
  • Predation is the hunting of prey by its predator.
  • This cycle of predator and prey lasts approximately 10 years, with the predator population lagging 1–2 years behind that of the prey population.
  • Mechanical defenses, such as the presence of thorns on plants or the hard shell on turtles, discourage animal predation and herbivory by causing physical pain to the predator or by physically preventing the predator from being able to eat the prey.

• Predator-Prey Systems

  • The rate of predation upon the prey is assumed to be proportional to the rate at which the predators and the prey meet; this is represented above by $\beta xy$.
  • If either $x$ or $y$ is zero, then there can be no predation.
  • In the predator equation, $\delta xy$ represents the growth of the predator population.
  • The predator population follows the prey population.
  • Identify type of the equations used to model the predator-prey systems

• Plant Defenses Against Herbivores

  • Some metabolites are alkaloids, which discourage predators with noxious odors (such as the volatile oils of mint and sage) or repellent tastes (like the bitterness of quinine).
  • Mechanical wounding and predator attacks activate defense and protective mechanisms in the damaged tissue and elicit long-distancing signaling or activation of defense and protective mechanisms at sites farther from the injury location.
  • In addition, long-distance signaling elicits a systemic response aimed at deterring predators.
  • As tissue is damaged, jasmonates may promote the synthesis of compounds that are toxic to predators.
  • The spines on cactus plants are modified leaves that act as a mechanical defense against predators.

• Waxes

  • The leaves and fruits of many plants have waxy coatings, which may protect them from dehydration and small predators.

• Predatory Pricing

  • The predator hopes to generate revenues and profits in the future that will more than offset the losses it incurred during the predatory pricing period.
  • In either case, this may force the predator to prolong or abandon the price reductions.
  • The strategy may fail if the predator cannot endure the short-term losses, either because it takes longer than expected or simply because the loss was not properly estimated.
  • So the predator should hope this strategy to works only when it is much stronger than its competitors and when barriers to entry are high.
  • Economists argue that the competitors (the 'prey') know that the predator cannot sustain low prices forever, so it is essentially a game of chicken.

• Fossil Formation

  • Decay, predators, or scavengers will typically rapidly remove the flesh.
  • The hard parts, if they are separable at all, can be dispersed by predators, scavengers, or currents.
  • The individual hard parts are subject to chemical weathering and erosion, as well as to splintering by predators or scavengers, which will crunch up bones for marrow and shells to extract the flesh inside.
  • Also, an animal swallowed whole by a predator, such as a mouse swallowed by a snake, will have not just its flesh but some, and perhaps all, its bones destroyed by the gastric juices of the predator.

• Temperate Forests

  • The leaf litter also protects soil from erosion, insulates the ground, and provides habitats for invertebrates (such as the pill bug or roly-poly, Armadillidium vulgare) and their predators, such as the red-backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus).
  • The leaf litter is home to invertebrates (such as the pill bug or roly-poly, Armadillidium vulgare) and their predators, including the red-backed salamander (Plethodon cinereus).
  • The top predators in deciduous forest were once wolves and cougars, but their populations have been in decline.

• Density-Dependent and Density-Independent Population Regulation

  • Most density-dependent factors, which are biological in nature (biotic), include predation, inter- and intraspecific competition, accumulation of waste, and diseases such as those caused by parasites.
  • In addition, low prey density increases the mortality of its predator because it has more difficulty locating its food source.

• Simple Learned Behaviors

  • Prairie dogs typically sound an alarm call when threatened by a predator, but they become habituated to the sound of human footsteps when no harm is associated with this sound; therefore, they no longer respond to them with an alarm call.
  • In this example, habituation is specific to the sound of human footsteps, as the animals still respond to the sounds of potential predators.

• Exotic Species

  • Exotic species introduced into foreign ecosystems can threaten native species through competition for resources, predation, and disease.
  • Human transportation of people and goods, including the intentional transport of organisms for trade, has dramatically increased the introduction of species into new ecosystems, sometimes at distances that are well beyond the capacity of the species to ever travel itself and outside the range of the species' natural predators.
  • For this reason, exotic species, also called invasive species, can threaten other species through competition for resources, predation, or disease.