Predator and prey relationships

Predators and prey

Predators are animals that kill and eat other animals, examples of predators are foxes and lions. Prey are the animals that are eaten by predators examples of prey are rabbits and giraffes.

Depending on their position in the food chain, many animals can be both predator and prey. A stoat is a predator when it hunts rabbits, but it in turn is also prey when hunted by a fox.

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In nature there is a delicate balance between the population of a predator (e.g. lynx) and its prey (e.g. snowshoe hare). However the prey will always outnumber the predators.

The number of prey and predators will follow a classic population cycle. There will always be more hares than lynx and the lynx population peak will always come after the population peak for the hares. The population cycle cause and effect so they will be out of phase.

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