Date: December 4, 2017
Source: Imperial College London
In a surprise ecological finding,
researchers discover medium-sized carnivores spend the most time looking for
food, making them vulnerable to change.
Mammalian predators (commonly
called carnivores) spend a significant part of their day foraging for food, and
the more time they spend, the more energy they use. This makes predators that
spend a long time foraging more vulnerable to changes in the environment that
affect their primary resource: their prey.
It had been thought that foraging
time decreases as animal size increases, but new research by Imperial College
London and the ZSL (Zoological Society of London) shows this is not the case.
The team used data on land
predators worldwide, from small predators such as weasels to some of the
largest such as tigers, to demonstrate that among all species, medium-sized
ones (between about one to ten kilograms in weight) spent the greatest part of
their day foraging. Examples of such medium-sized carnivores include the Malay
civet, Iriomote cat, Leopard cat and Crab-eating fox.
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