The northern pike may reach lengths as great as 1.5 m (4.6 ft). Prey capture is facilitated by the impaling of the prey animal on the sharp teeth, after which the pike retreats to cover, turns the prey around, and swallows it, head first. Pikes tend to be lie-in-wait, ambush predators, with elongated snouts, long, well-muscled torsos, forked tails, and dorsal and anal fins set well back and opposite each other for rapid acceleration along a straight line, allowing the fish to quickly emerge from cover to capture their prey. The Esociformes are a small order of ray-finned fish, with two families, the Umbridae (mudminnows) and the Esocidae (pikes). They lunge forward, and with a sweeping motion grab their prey, impaling it on their double rows of sharp teeth. Their method of ambush is to float a few feet below the surface, and wait for unsuspecting prey to swim within reach. They are opportunistic night predators and are primarily piscivores, but they will also ambush and eat water fowl and small mammals that may be floating on the surface. Surface-dwellersĪlligator gars ( Atractosteus spatula) are relatively passive, seemingly sluggish solitary fish, but voracious ambush predators. The methods used also vary and include a sudden lunging, rapid inhalation of water containing prey, and the use of lures. Depending on the species, their ambushes can occur at the surface of the water, in the main body of the water, or at the bottom. Many ray-finned fish are ambush predators. Leopards and domestic cats are also ambush predators with similar tactics. The larger front feet and claws are adaptations to clutching prey. It has five retractable claws on its forepaws (one a dewclaw) and four on its hind paws. Its powerful forequarters, neck, and jaw serve to grasp and hold large prey. The head of the cat is round and the ears are erect. The cougar is capable of breaking the neck of some of its smaller prey with a strong bite and momentum bearing the animal to the ground. It stalks through brush and trees, across ledges, or other covered spots, before delivering a powerful leap onto the back of its prey and a suffocating neck bite. Though capable of sprinting, the cougar is typically an ambush predator. Ambush predators include many fish, snakes, and other reptiles, as well as some mammals, birds, insects and spiders. Animals with such strategies include cats of all sizes, crocodiles and some insects such as predators that haunt ant trails. There are however, many dimensions to predation and many overlapping strategies for example some predators exploit predictable prey pathways that offer opportunities intermediate between ambush and pursuit. There are many intermediate strategies for ambush predators for example, when a pursuit predator is faster than its prey over a short distance, but not in a long chase, then either stalking or ambushing becomes necessary as part of the strategy. However, if the active predator's velocity increases, its advantage increases sharply. So long as the active predator cannot move faster than its prey, it has little advantage over the ambush predator. This mode of predation may be less risky for the predator because lying-in-wait reduces exposure to its own predators. Ambush predators are often camouflaged, and may be solitary animals. Examples of predators are cats, crocodiles, snakes, raptors, wolves, killer whales, lobsters and sharks.Animal ambush predators usually remain motionless (sometimes hidden) and wait for prey to come within ambush distance before pouncing. Predators will hunt other animals for food. Predators are usually carnivores (meat-eaters) or omnivores (eats plants and other animals). A top predator or apex predator is one that is not the prey of other predators. The animals that the predator hunts are called prey. For example, a spider eating a fly caught at its web is a predator, or a pack of lions eating a buffalo. A true predator can be thought of as one which both kills and eats another animal but many animals act as both predator and scavenger.Ī predator is an animal that hunts, catches and eats other animals. But the act of predation always causes the death of its prey and taking in the prey's body parts into the predators body. Predators may or may not kill their prey before eating them. In ecology, predation describes a relationship and actions between two creatures. Indian Python swallowing a full grown Chital deer at Mudumalai National Park
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