Limit of terrestrial predators

2007/03/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Biologia
• Zoologia

In terrestrial mammals, the largest carnivorous is the polar bear. And it will hardly be bigger. Biologists estimate that a predator of more than 1,100 kilos would have great metabolic problems to survive. It seems that the data so far confirm this calculation, since the largest bear ever measured was 1,002 kilos.

Heavier predators should run over very large animals, but it would not offset the expense of this catch. This does not occur in small predators.

In general, those of less than twenty kilos can live by eating small animals, but those greater than that limit need prey to their measure or greater. The greater the predators, the greater the prey they need. But this has a limit: the limit of energy. The capture must be recovered above the energy spent on hunting. According to biologists, predators of more than a ton rarely get it.