Predators

Predation - the killing of one living organism by another for food

Predators make a living by eating other critters. Most of us have seen robins pulling an earthworm from a lawn or perhaps a Cooper’s hawk take a junco at the feeder. By the way, unless you’re a vegetarian, you too are a predator – once or twice removed from the killing part if you’re not a hunter.

Predation is a hard way to make a living; therefore almost all predators are also scavengers because it’s both energy efficient and safer to feed on something that’s already dead and doesn’t have to be caught or that might fight back.

Virtually all predators eat a lot of vegetable matter as well as their prey. Apples, berries, grass and forbs all make up a part of most predators' diets. 

Predators are usually not very common on the landscape and are usually opportunists, taking whatever’s easiest to catch and kill. Most have their eyes aimed forward, giving them binocular vision like ours. Binocular vision enables them to accurately gauge the distance to their prey.

And most predators are also quite intelligent compared to prey species.

Prey species, on the other hand, usually have their eyes toward the side of their head which gives them a wider field of view so they can see danger approaching.

As a rough (very rough) rule of thumb there are 100 individuals of any prey species to every individual predator – any fewer and the predator will run out of food. In general, prey abundance controls the predator population, not the other way ‘round as many people mistakenly believe.

If you’ve often visited In Forest and Field you may have gotten the impression that I tend to favor predators - you'd be correct. Most of my favorite wild critters are predators: black-capped chickadees, common ravens, eastern coyotes, short-eared owls, bobcats, the list goes on but those species are at the top of the list.