concept

The life-dinner principle

An explanation of the asymmetry in the predator-prey race, put by Richard Dawkins and John Krebs in one sharp line: the rabbit runs faster than the fox, because the rabbit runs for its life while the fox runs only for its dinner. Prey that fail are dead and leave no offspring; predators that fail merely go hungry, try again tomorrow, and very likely still breed. So selection presses far harder on the hunted than the hunter, and prey defences tend to stay one step ahead of predator weapons - why the hexapede's speed, startle-fan and warning senses are so good, and why even a superb viperwolf pack misses more often than it hits.