Kleptopredation: Natural Turduckens
Some birds steal food from other birds to save themselves work, but kleptopredators take it one step further! We're conducting a survey of our viewers! If you have time, please give us feedback:...
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Every year as fall slides into winter, we’re reminded of the masterpiece that is the turducken. The meal that asks “how would it taste if I ate a turkey that had just eaten a duck that had just eaten a chicken?” The idea sounds absurd. But there are animals that eat other animals to also eat their undigested meals. It’s a feeding strategy called kleptopredation, which is really a specialized version of another weird feeding strategy, called kleptoparasitism. That’s when an animal steals a meal caught or prepared in some way by another animal—like how frigatebirds and gulls dive bomb other birds to steal fish. This way, they don’t have to put as many resources into finding or catching top-quality food. They let other species do the hard w...
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Every year as fall slides into winter, we’re reminded of the masterpiece that is the turducken. The meal that asks “how would it taste if I ate a turkey that had just eaten a duck that had just eaten a chicken?” The idea sounds absurd. But there are animals that eat other animals to also eat their undigested meals. It’s a feeding strategy called kleptopredation, which is really a specialized version of another weird feeding strategy, called kleptoparasitism. That’s when an animal steals a meal caught or prepared in some way by another animal—like how frigatebirds and gulls dive bomb other birds to steal fish. This way, they don’t have to put as many resources into finding or catching top-quality food. They let other species do the hard w...
