When Carnivores Are "Full and Lazy".
From: Section of Evolutionary Ecology, Department Biology II, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany. jonathan.jeschke@gmx.net
Oecologia
- Publish Date: May 2007
- ISSN: 0029-8549
- Volume: 152
- Issue: 2
- Pages: 357-64
- Medium: Print
- Language: English
- Citation (JAMA): Jeschke Jonathan M, et al. When Carnivores Are "Full and Lazy".. Oecologia May 2007;152:357-64
Abstract
Are animals usually hungry and busily looking for food, or do they often meet their energetic and other needs in the 24 h of a day? Focusing on carnivores, I provide evidence for the latter scenario. I develop a model that predicts the minimum food abundance at which a carnivore reaches satiation and is released from time constraints. Literature data from five invertebrate and vertebrate species suggest that food abundances experienced in the field often exceed this threshold. A comparison of energetic demands to kill rates also suggests that carnivores often reach satiation: for the 16 bird and mammal species analyzed, this frequency is 88% (average across species). Because pressure of time would likely lead to trade-offs in time allocation and thus to a nonsatiating food consumption, these results suggest that carnivores are often released from time constraints.
Mesh Headings (Keywords): Animals, Birds, Carnivora, Models, Biological, Predatory Behavior, Time Factors
Check for Full Text / PubMed Unique Identifier (PMID): 17294218
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