Active Defense and Predator Specialization Tom Peake Active Defense and Predator Specialization

Active Defense Active Defense, by definition is anything an animal can do to defend itself from predators. Running, hiding, fighting are all forms of active defense. Anything an animal can do by itself, to defend it self is active defense

Continued A large part of Active Defense is evolution. An animal can evolve its traits to help defend itself. Example – A cheetah can grow longer legs to escape. A snake can develop more poisoness venom to defend itself.

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Passive Defense Passive defense is a defense mechanism from predators that some animals have. Passive defense has to do with the color, or structure of the animals body. They use these skills to hide or blend in with an environment around them. There are two major types of passive defense.

Mimicry Definition – When one animal copies the appearance, actions or sounds of another animal. This animal is called a mimic. Mimicry is the other form of passive defense. Certain animals use mimicry as a defense mechanism from predators, they can copy or imitate certain skills that similar animals use to defend themselves.

Camouflage Some animals camouflage their entire bodies to protect themselves from predators. If the camouflage works well, the predators won’t see them and they can survive. Certain animals who use camouflage can change color to match the certain environment or color behind them. Other ones have one distinct camouflage color to match one material.

Passive Defense as camouflage.

Predator Specialization There are two different types of predators. General predators and Special predators.

General Predators Certain predators / carnivores can hunt any kind of prey. Example – Lions can hunt Gazelles, Impala, Warthogs, Buffalo, Zebra – any sizeable mammal in their environment.

Specialist Predators Specialist predators are predators that only prey on one specific type of prey. They have special ways and adaptations to hunt their one type prey to perfection. Generations worth of adaptations have occurred to make certain specialist predators have perfect features for hunting

Specialist Predator – The Anteater The Anteater or Giant Anteater has a long mouth or snout, perfect to stick down anthills. They suck up hundreds of ants at a time for their meals.

Evolution Evolution plays a huge part on how all three of these defense / hunting mechanisms work. Animals improve on their hunting specialties throughout time. These mechanisms also have to do with Natural Selection.