According to the type of nutrition, all living organisms are divided into autotrophs and heterotrophs. The former include plants and some bacteria that obtain organic matter through photosynthesis or chemosynthesis. Heterotrophs are those organisms that eat ready-made organic compounds. These include fungi and animals. The latter are either herbivores or carnivores.
Who are predators?
These are living organisms that hunt and eat other creatures. These are animals, bacteria, and even some plants.
Predator animals
All animals are divided into unicellular and multicellular. The latter are represented by such main types as Coelenterates, Worms, Mollusks, Arthropods, Echinoderms, Chordates. Chordates include fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and mammals. Examples of predation in nature exist in each of the animal classes.
Predatory arthropods
This type includes such cash desks: Crustaceans, Arachnids, Centipedes and Insects. A striking example of predation in arthropods is the praying mantis. It can prey on small lizards, frogs, and even birds and rodents. The ground beetle is also an example of predation in arthropods. She eats other insectsearthworms, mollusks, larvae of various beetles. The ktyr fly also leads a predatory lifestyle: it eats dragonflies, wasps, horse beetles. Almost all spiders also feed on insects, mainly flies. In spiders, the largest are tarantulas and tarantulas. They have poison with which they paralyze their victims. The first, in addition to birds, can eat rats and other large rodents. The second mainly eats large insects such as ground beetles, various beetles, crickets, as well as caterpillars and larvae. A striking example of predation in centipedes is centipede.
Predator fish
Fish that feed on other large fauna can be both freshwater and marine. The former include pikes, pike perches, perches, and ruffs. Pike is the largest freshwater predator, its weight can reach more than thirty kilograms. She feeds on smaller fish.
Zander is also an example of predation in freshwater fish. It is also large, its weight is twenty kilograms, and the average length is 130 cm. Its diet consists of smaller predators: ruffs, roach, as well as gobies, minnows and other small fish. Among marine predatory fish, the great white shark (carcharadon) and barracuda are distinguished. The first is the largest predatory fish in the world, it eats fur seals, seals, sea otters, sea turtles, tuna, mackerel, sea bass. In some cases, it can attack people. White sharks have several rows of teeth, the total number of which can reach 1500 pieces. Barracudas tooreach impressive sizes - their average length is two meters. The bulk of their diet consists of shrimp, squid, and smaller fish. This fish is also called sea pike.
Bird World
The lifestyle and way of feeding most large birds is predation. Examples of animals of this class that prey on other living creatures: hawks, golden eagles, falcons, owls, serpent-eaters, kites, condors, eagles, kestrels.
Mammal Predators
This class is divided into twenty-one units. Predatory animals of this group stand out in the detachment of the same name. Mostly well-known families belong to it, there are thirteen of them - these are Canine, Feline, Bear, Hyena, Mustelidae, Panda, Skunk, Real seals, Eared seals, Walrus, Viverrid, Madagascar viverras, Nandinievye. Canids include dogs, wolves, foxes, arctic foxes, jackals.
The diet of all these animals consists mainly of small mammals, such as hares, rodents, as well as birds. Some of them feed on carrion - these are jackals, wolves. Cats include tigers, lions, manuls, leopards, caracals, ocelots, lynxes, etc. They eat small mammals, mainly rodents, and sometimes feed on fish and insects. The bear menu can include both meat and vegetable food: berries, other fruits, roots of various plants. Seals and walruses prey on fish and some invertebrates. The viverrids also include animals such as genets, African civets. They feed on birds, small animals, birds,invertebrates, bird eggs.
The Madagascar civet family includes various types of mungoes. Their menu includes insects and scorpions. Nandiniums include only one species - the palm civet. She preys on mice and rats, large insects. The Kunya family includes martens, badgers, minks, ferrets, they eat chicks and bird eggs.
Examples of predation in the plant kingdom
Most of the plants are autotrophs. They obtain their nutrients exclusively through photosynthesis, in which, by absorbing solar energy, carbon dioxide and water, they receive organic substances (mainly glucose) from them and release oxygen as a by-product.
But among them there are predators that feed on insects, because where they live, there is not enough light to live on photosynthesis alone. These include the Venus flytrap, sundew, Nepenthes, Sarracenia.
