Predators rarely kill and eat all available prey because:

predator and prey species often occupy the same trophic level in an ecosystem

prey species often lack protective mechanisms to deter being eaten

many predator and prey species have a commensalistic relationship

predator species often will switch its prey as one prey species becomes less abundant

Question

Jocelynn Hensley

Biology

26 December, 23:01

Predators rarely kill and eat all available prey because:

predator and prey species often occupy the same trophic level in an ecosystem

prey species often lack protective mechanisms to deter being eaten

many predator and prey species have a commensalistic relationship

predator species often will switch its prey as one prey species becomes less abundant

+2

Answers (1)

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Seth Russo · Answer 1

Because predator species often will switch its prey as one prey species becomes less abundant.

Why this is so should be obvious - because it's not in the interest of predators for the prey species to completely die out as it would effectively also mean that they would die out due to not having enough food to eat.