Limit of terrestrial predators
2007/01/19 Roa Zubia, Guillermo - Elhuyar Zientzia
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 capture very large animals, but the expense of this catch would not compensate those caught. This does not occur in small predators. In general, minors of about twenty kilos can live by eating small animals, but the older ones of that barrier need custom or larger prey. 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.
