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Factors Influencing Mountain Lion Kill Rates Across Three Ecosystems In The Americas, Steven Cross
Factors Influencing Mountain Lion Kill Rates Across Three Ecosystems In The Americas, Steven Cross
Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts
Kill rate, defined as the number of prey killed per predator per unit time, is a key component to understanding predator-prey dynamics. A multitude of factors may affect kill rates, including, variation in age, sex, weight, or presence of offspring of either predator or prey species (intraspecific variation) and events such as the theft of a kill made by another animal (kleptoparasitism). These factors may influence the time a predator spends locating prey (search time) and the pursuing, killing, and consumption of prey (handling time). The sum of search time and handling time may be measured as the time between …