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Fascination and Fear: Earth’s Most Formidable Predatory Beasts
We usually associate them with wolves, lions, or tigers. However, predatory animals are a highly diverse group. We can find them in virtually every ecosystem and corner of the Earth.
Predatory animals fascinate nature enthusiasts, especially their strength and intelligence, which translate into hunting strategies. Predators regularly appear in lists of the world’s most dangerous animals. However, it’s important to remember that from a biological perspective, the presence of predators is essential for maintaining the balance of the ecosystems they inhabit. What are predatory animals? Where do they occur? I will answer these and other questions below.
How do we define predatory animals?
Let’s start with the fact that predatory animals are heterotrophic organisms. They cannot harness solar energy like plants or chemical energy like some microbes. Instead, they obtain energy by consuming other creatures.
They are also carnivorous animals or zoophages. However, unlike scavengers and parasites, they actively acquire their food. A predator is a zoophage whose way of obtaining sustenance leads to the death of its prey.
In many classifications, predatory animals are synonymous with mammals. Taxonomy even identifies a…
