What do animals do to hunt and find prey?

Some animals, such as tits, snails, ladybugs, etc., can easily get their food objects once they are found and selected, and there is basically no problem of predation skills. But for other animals, it is not difficult to find and choose prey, but it is difficult to catch them. There are two kinds of predation strategies: one is to win by "waiting", or to secretly approach the prey by surprise attack; The other is to rely on poverty and win with speed and endurance. Ambush and sneak attack are often used by solitary animals, which are only suitable for habitats with many hidden objects. On the contrary, in habitats with wide horizons and few hidden objects, animals often hunt for food by chasing.

Comparatively speaking, small predators often adopt the strategy of "waiting" or ambush, on the one hand, because of their large number of prey, on the other hand, it is also related to their small size and easy concealment. With the increase of animal size, concealment will become more and more difficult.

Among the animals that feed on chasing, there are not many animals that can run for a long time. Even the fastest animal can only run at its maximum speed within a limited distance. Therefore, animals that adopt the pursuit strategy usually try to get close to their prey first, and then start chasing within a certain distance. Most animals hunted by lions can run faster than lions, so the key to the success of lions is to catch their prey before it reaches its maximum running speed.

Predators who specialize in large running animals often show a special tendency, that is, they like to kill young, aging and sick individuals, such as wolves, lions and grizzly bears. These animals can also eat carrion. Among the large carnivores in East Africa, only cheetahs don't eat carrion. Goshawk likes to kill small or injured forest pigeons, because these individuals have poor alertness, slow flight speed and are easy to be caught.

Predators generally don't attack prey that is potentially dangerous to them unless they can get huge benefits from these prey. It is observed that lions have a very high casualty rate when attacking dangerous prey, such as bison and antelope. Pumas have high hunting skills and can kill their prey quickly without hurting themselves. Tigers have similar skills.