When you start observing and photographing wildlife, it doesn’t take long to witness one of the most basic of animal behaviors: predation. Many animals are obligate predators: that’s the only way they eat. If they cannot catch, kill, and consume another animal, they will starve. Others strike some balance between predation and other ways of feeding themselves: plants, scavenging, parasitism, etc. Many combine different forms of animal prey, while others are specialists. Most predators are simultaneously prey for other, usually larger, animals.
Violence is built into the natural world, and it is usually not quick or merciful. Sometimes the challenge for me is to empathize with both predator and prey—life has worked like this since a single-called organism first enveloped and metabolized another billions of years ago.
In this sequence, an immature Cooper’s hawk chases a Gila woodpecker. The woodpecker appears to be molting, and it isn’t a strong flier compared to the fast and acrobatic raptor. The woodpecker almost escapes by diving at the last moment, but the hawk manages to grasp one leg in its talons.
Hummingbirds are usually thought of as nectar feeders, and that is the main source of energy for the tiny birds. But they also need protein and fat, and insects are the perfect food.
Many birds have evolved traits for hunting fish and other aquatic prey: long legs, spear-like beak, sharp eyesight, a brain that compensates for refraction, and lightning-fast reflexes. Great egrets flip captured fish to orient the head gullet-ward to prevent the fish’s spiny fin-rays from getting stuck.
Sometimes, predator-prey status depends on where you are in your life cycle. Two young Cooper’s hawks (younger and smaller than the one above) instinctively stay on the ground and watch a mature peregrine falcon on the cliff above. The falcon is one of the fastest animals on the planet, and the hawks would be targets at this stage in their lives. When they fully mature, they will compete with the falcon for the same prey: other birds. Until then, they’ll yield the air to the falcon.
Invertebrates were the first land animals, and they brought predation with them from the oceans. While vertebrates tend toward the “grab-and-swallow” strategy—simple and effective—invertebrates go for all manner of venom, sucking, biting, ensnaring, and general body horror. Cannibalism is also popular.
Predators and prey
