In: Biology
What component of the foraging process best explains the differences you see between the functional response of the predator on each of the prey types?
The foraging process could be diveded into three major components:
However, the most important component that affects the functional response of the predator is the density of prey, i.e. the ability of the predator to adjust its feeding rate to the changes in prey density. Each predator increased its consumption rate when exposed to a higher prey density and predator density increased with prey density.
In fact, according to Holling, the number of prey consumed is influenced by the density of prey and hence there are three functional responses:
Type I: The rate of consumption is proportional to prey density.
Type II: The number of prey consumed increases rapidly and then plateaus with increasing prey density.
Type III: Predator response to prey is reduced at low prey density.