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About This Quiz
Predators and prey are the peanut butter and jelly of Earth. Not only are they made for each other, but they also ensure life evolves. If lions weren't fast and strong enough to chase down wildebeest, humans would never be able to lurk around and scavenge the bone marrow. And if humans had to dedicate strength and energy to hunting and stalking like all the other wild animals, we would have never evolved into what we are today. The relationship between predators and prey affects every aspect of life.
Animals can live neutral lives, but all animals are either predators or prey, and most are both. Even apex predators like lions and crocodiles aren't completely safe and are sometimes hunted by carnivores like wolves and hyenas in desperate times. Even the biggest animal on Earth, the blue whale, has been attacked by predators looking for a meal. No animals hunt humans, but we're preyed upon by plenty.
Some predators hunt from the sky, some predators ambush their prey, some predators chase their prey, and some predators trick their prey. The animal kingdom is full of predators, and everything from birds in the sky to seeds on the ground is considered prey. Predators and prey are all around us, and we see them every day. Take a look at these animals and see if you can tell us which one is the predator and which one is the prey.
Tiger
Goat
Tigers are some of the most skilled stalkers on the planet, and they can hunt everything from insects to baby elephants. Although they can eat a wide range of food, they function most efficiently when dieting on medium-sized mammals like goats, cows and pigs.
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Bear
Grizzly bears are known to camp out at popular salmon spots and feast on the fish when they're in abundance. Because grizzlies hibernate for half the year, they need to load up on fat to make it through the winter, and salmon is the perfect source.
Salmon
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Golden eagle
Golden eagles are some of the most voracious hunters in the sky, and very few animals are safe from their skills. With a wingspan that can span more than 7 feet long, these birds can attack full-grown deer.
Mountain goat
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Dolphin
Orcas are some of the deadliest hunters on the planet and are known even to hunt sharks and blue whales. They viciously play with their food during their hunts and are known to kill dolphins by breaking their spines.
Orca
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Deer
Crocodile
Crocodiles are known for having the strongest bites in the animal kingdom. They can weigh more than 2,000 pounds and move faster than 15 mph. At about 15 feet long, the crocodile can hunt prey of all sizes.
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Housefly
Spiders have some of the most unique hunting techniques in the world. The creatures spin sticky webs and wait for prey to get stuck. Once the victim gets stuck in the web, spiders inject venom that liquefies its insides.
House spider
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Wasp
Almost all adult wasps eat nectar and honey, but they still have to hunt and kill to feed their larvae. Some species hunt spiders, others prey on caterpillars, and some even enjoy human foods like sweets and meats.
Caterpillar
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Cat
House cats are natural hunters that hunt everything from insects to birds just for fun. A game of cat and mouse can last days. Although mice are outsized by their housemates, they can squeeze through pinhole spaces and play dead to evade capture.
Mouse
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Ants
Anteaters
Anteaters are explicitly designed to eat ants, and they can eat 30,000 ants a day. They don't have any teeth and are also known to eat fruit, but ants make up a big chunk of their diet. They also have rather large claws used to defend themselves against larger predators.
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Lynx
The Canadian lynx is one of the rarest cats in North America. It hunts the normal lineup of mammals hunted by most felines, but the snowshoe hare is its favorite. The population of snowshoe hare is directly affected by the Canadian lynx.
Hare
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Lion
Warthog
A large warthog can weigh more than 300 pounds, making it a perfectly-sized meal for a lion. Lions are apex predators that only eat meat, and they can hunt almost anything they want. Rhinos, hippos, crocodiles, baby elephants and giraffes aren't even safe.
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Wolves
Moose
Wolves rarely hunt alone and are some of the most ruthless hunters on the planet. Along with hyenas, they're one of the only animals known to attack a lion. They usually spend their time hunting hoofed animals like deer, goats and moose.
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Great white shark
Baby great white sharks spend most of their time eating small fish, but adults feast on sea lions, seals, otters and other sea mammals. Great whites are apex predators, but they are afraid of orca whales and have been recorded to flee the area when the killer whales arrive.
Elephant seal
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Osprey
The osprey is one of the best fishers on the planet. Their diet consists of almost only fish, and they always live next to large bodies of water. With a two-foot wingspan, ospreys can snatch nearly every fish that weighs less than 5 pounds.
Trout
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Cheetah
Cheetahs can reach speeds faster than 70 mph and are some of the fastest animals on Earth. They only weigh about 100 pounds and stand just a few feet tall. Cheetahs hunt prey that flees rather than prey that fights.
Gazelle
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African wild dog
Impala
African wild dogs are considered to be some of the most efficient hunters on Earth. Their hunting tactic is to tire out their prey by chasing it around, and they have very few predators in the wild. Lions and hyenas can pose a threat.
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Leopard seal
Leopard seals mostly eat small fish and krill, but they seem to enjoy hunting penguins. Seals have even been recorded to play a game of cat-and-mouse while hunting penguins, and they don't always eat their catch.
Penguin
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Mongoose
Snake
As deadly as many snakes are, they are hunted by an array of animals ranging from eagles to house cats. Packs of mongoose are known to circle and attack snakes in the territory, and the animals aren't afraid of snake venom.
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Weasel
Weasels are small but ferocious hunters that mostly diet on rodents. There are many species of weasel, and the least weasel is recognized as the smallest carnivore in the world. Weasels have to eat constantly due to their fast metabolisms.
Chipmunk
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Honey badger
Honey badgers love honey, and their main targets when looking for food are honeycombs. They do hunt everything from insects to snakes to small game and have tough skin that allows them to fight off deadly predators.
Squirrel
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Polar bear
Polar bears only live in the Arctic and have to hunt anything they can. They aren't great hunters, but they will pursue any other animal in the area, including seals and walruses. They eat a lot of fish and washed-up whale carcasses.
Walrus
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Mink
Both minks and rabbits are preyed upon by humans for their fur, but in the wild, minks prey upon rabbits. Minks are violent and attack a wide range of prey, but they are rather small and are hunted by an equally wide range of predators.
Rabbit
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Skunk
A skunk's spray is one of the most effective defense mechanisms in the animal kingdom, but it doesn't work against the great horned owl. An owl's sense of smell doesn't detect the nasty scent, rendering it ineffective.
Great horned owl
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Otter
Carp
Some otters are big and strong enough to kill a small alligator, and although they hunt everything from snakes and turtles to raccoons and beavers, their diet mostly consists of small and medium-sized fish like carp. Otters are also prey for larger predators.
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Meerkat
Meerkats love deadly scorpions. They have perfected their hunting and eating techniques to avoid the scorpion's venom by ripping off its stinger. Meerkats will also brush away any traces of poison in the scorpion before eating it.
Scorpion
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Mantis shrimp
Crab
The mantis shrimp is equipped with a set of club-like claws that are used to bludgeon enemies and prey. The punches are strong enough to break a crab's shell. The claws punch faster than 50 mph. The greatest boxer in the world can punch about half as fast as that.
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Secretary bird
Secretarybirds live across Africa, and they love to hunt snakes. They rarely hunt from the sky, as they are rather tall birds, and their attack method consists of stomping to death. The birds stomp at five times their body weight.
Black mamba
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Dragonfly
Mosquito
Dragonflies are known to hunt prey at an extremely successful rate, and most of their prey consists of quick-flying insects like mosquitoes and flies. They're expert hunters, but are preyed upon by larger animals, and are even eaten as snacks in some cultures.
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Blue whale
It's only fitting that the largest animal on Earth loves to eat one of the smallest animals in the ocean. Blue whales are known to consume millions and millions of krill a day, equaling three or four tons of food per day.
Krill
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Komodo dragon
Komodo dragons are pretty rare animals and are only found on a few Indonesian islands. They can hunt almost anything they want and are even deadly to humans. Once bitten, most animals die within a day because of the dragon's venom.
Water buffalo
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Boa constrictor
Boa constrictors clench prey with their powerful jaws and then wrap themselves around their catch to cut off the blood supply. Constrictors hunt a variety of animals, but their most common prey is rodents. They are even kept as pets for rodent control.
Rat
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Electric eel
Squid
The most powerful electric eels in the world can shock at upwards of 800 volts of power, and they use that tool to stun their prey. They mostly eat other fish, squids, octopodes, amphibians and crustaceans.
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Chameleon
Chameleons have one of the coolest hunting tools in nature. Their tongues measure twice the length of their bodies, and they go from 0 to 60 mph in 1/100th of a second. They regularly feed on insects but also eat leaves and vegetables.
Locust
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Hyena
Antelope
Hyenas are some of the most ruthless hunters on the planet. They will hunt anything and are one of the only animals that will readily attack a lone lion when in a pack. They are much more successful hunting game like antelope.
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Harpy eagle
Birds are such great hunters, and very few land animals stand a chance against them if they're unfortunate enough to be targeted. Harpy eagles and sloths both have some of the largest claws on Earth, but the sloths are no threat to the eagle.
Sloth
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Black mamba
The black mamba is one of the most venomous animals on the planet. It's also the fastest snake on the planet. It will bite its prey once or twice and simply wait for it to die before devouring it. They mostly eat rodents.
Bush baby
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Blue-ringed octopus
Crab
The blue-ringed octopus is considered the most venomous animal in the ocean and can kill an adult human within minutes. It uses its venom to paralyze and kill its prey before feeding, and it mostly feeds on crabs.
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Praying mantis
The praying mantis is one of the most revered hunters in the insect kingdom and is capable of taking down animals as large as lizards, snakes and birds. They spend the majority of their time hunting much easier prey like grasshoppers.
Grasshopper
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Bottlenose dolphin
Bottlenose dolphins can eat 30 pounds of food a day, and they eat a range of seafood from squid to fish. They don't have teeth, so they swallow their food whole. They can weigh more than 1,000 pounds and grow 13 feet long.
Mackerel
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Human
Although you may squash a mosquito now and then, humans don't prey on mosquitoes. Mosquitoes specifically prey on human blood, and they're the deadliest animal towards humans, leading to about a million deaths a year.
Mosquito
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