Chapter 9 The Nature of Predation Introduction: the types of predators Consumers affect the distribution and abundance of the things they consume and vice versa, and these effects are of central importance in ecology. Yet, it is never an easy task to determine what the effects are, how they vary and why they vary. | Chapter 9 The Nature of Predation Introduction the types of predators Consumers affect the distribution and abundance of the things they consume and vice versa and these effects are of central importance in ecology. Yet it is never an easy task to determine what the effects are how they vary and why they vary. These topics will be dealt with in this and the next few chapters. We begin here by asking What is the nature of predation What are the effects of predation on the predators themselves and on their prey and What determines where predators feed and what they feed on In Chapter 10 we turn to the consequences of predation for the dynamics of predator and prey populations. Predation put simply is consumption of one organism the prey by another organism the predator in which the prey is alive when the predator first attacks it. This excludes detritivory the consumption of dead organic matter which is discussed in its own right in Chapter 11. Nevertheless it is a definition that encompasses a wide variety of interactions and a wide variety of predators . There are two main ways in which predators can be classified. Neither is functional perfect but both can be useful. The most obvious classification is taxonomic carnivores consume animals herbivores consume plants and omnivores consume both or more correctly prey from more than one trophic level - plants and herbivores or herbivores and carnivores . An alternative however is a functional classification of the type already outlined in Chapter 3. Here there are four main types of predator true predators grazers parasitoids and parasites the last is divisible further into microparasites and macroparasites as explained in Chapter 12 . True predators kill their prey more true predators or less immediately after attacking them during their lifetime they kill several or many different prey individuals often consuming prey in their entirety. Most of the more obvious carnivores like tigers eagles coccinellid beetles and
