Predators and Prey

Ecological Relationships

Ms. Oliveri

October 16, 2007

AIM

• To review predator and prey relationships

• To discuss the importance of healthy week and how people are mammals that need to take care of themselves too!

What is a Predator?

• An organism that eats another organism

• Make a list of as many predators as you can think of right now! (Don’t forget there are land, water, and air predators!)

• How did you do?

Predators

• Reef Predators

• Land Predators

• Air Predators

What are Prey?

• The organism which the predator eats.

• Try and make another list of the different prey that your list of predators may eat!

• If you finish that, try and remember the pictures of predators you just saw and make a list of their prey too!

Prey

Predator and Prey Evolve Together

• The prey is part of the predator's environment

• The predator dies if it does not get food

• A predator needs to evolve in order to catch and eat the prey!

• Think of some ways a predator would need to evolve to continue catching its prey…

Ways a Predator Evolves

• Speed• Stealth• Camouflage (to hide while approaching the prey)• A good sense of smell, sight, or hearing (to find

the prey)• Immunity to the prey's poison• Poison (to kill the prey) • The right kind of mouth parts or digestive system

Ways Prey Evolves

• Prey need to evolve to avoid being eaten!• Think of a few ways prey evolve to avoid their

predators…• Speed• Camouflage (to hide from the predator) • A good sense of smell• Sight• Hearing (to detect the predator)• Thorns • Poison (to spray when approached or bitten)

One Example…• Snowy environment…

• Polar bear is white to sneak up on prey

• Seal is white to avoid being noticed by predator!

Lions and Gemsbok

• The fastest lions are able to catch food and eat, so they survive and reproduce, and gradually, faster lions make up more and more of the population.

Predator-Prey Relationships

• The fastest gemsbok are able to escape the lions, so they survive and reproduce, and gradually, faster gemsbok make up more and more of the population!

• As both organisms become faster to adapt to their environments, their relationship remains the same: because they are both getting faster, neither gets faster in relation to the other.

• This is true in all predator-prey relationships!!!