Rethinking trophic niches: Speed and body mass colimit prey space of mammalian predators.

ABSTRACT: Realized trophic niches of predators are often characterized along a one-dimensional range in predator-prey body mass ratios. This prey range is constrained by an "energy limit" and a "subdue limit" toward small and large prey, respectively. Besides these body mass ratios, maximum speed is an additional key component in most predator-prey interactions.Here, we extend the concept of a one-dimensional prey range to a two-dimensional prey space by incorporating a hump-shaped speed-body mass relation. This new "speed limit" additionally constrains trophic niches of predators toward fast prey.To test this concept of two-dimensional prey spaces for different hunting strategies (pursuit, group, and ambush predation), we synthesized data on 63 terrestrial mammalian predator-prey inte

SUBMITTER: Hirt MR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7391329 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature