Re: Continental predators, etc.

["Marilyn Wegweiser" <mdwegweiser@hotmail.com>]

<SNIP>
> > > >
> > > > In tough times, missing a meal means risking your life.
> > >
> > >But such tough times are rare.
> >
> > You cannot be actually serious? Tough times are the daily norm for a
> > predator, and for the prey alike. [...]
>
> _Such_ tough times, when missing _one_ meal means risking its life for a
> predator, are relatively rare. The "basic asymmetry" is still there.

Really. Then you actually are serious. Fascinating.

Since my specialty includes in large part, the study of predatory behavior 
and behavioral morphology as evidenced by the fossil record and entails the 
observation in detail of modern predatory techniques to better facilitate my 
interpretations of what I find in the fossil record, then I find my library 
to be insufficient and lacking the information from upon which you draw your 
conclusion.

Please provide me (and the rest of us) if you would, with the citations of 
the published works that support the conclusion that you are expouding - 
that it is rare that missing one meal is a risk to a predators life. Hunting 
for dinner is a risk to every predator as well as the prey. One error during 
the process and the predator itself becomes potential carrion - not perhaps 
right away, but sporting perhaps an injury that makes hunting more of a 
challenge . It is a slippery slope indeed, to the death once that happens.

Cheers,
Marilyn W.


=00=  =00=  =00=  =00=
Marilyn D. Wegweiser, Ph.D.
CMC Research Associate
Adjunct Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology
Cincinnati Museum Center
Geier Collections and Research Center



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