Examples of carnivores embody land mammals such because the tiger, lion, wolf, wolverine and African wild canine; marine mammals resembling seals and the orca; birds resembling eagles, owls and shrikes; reptiles resembling snakes and crocodiles; and ocean animals resembling sharks and squid.
This web page incorporates examples of carnivores, together with these and lots of extra carnivorous species…
Use the index under to search out info on a selected animal, or proceed scrolling to browse the entire animals on the listing and to search out out extra about carnivores.
Carnivores Examples
What Is A Carnivore?
A carnivore is a meat-eater – a species that obtains the diet it wants from animals, somewhat than plant matter.
Many carnivores are hunters, geared up with diversifications resembling enamel, claws, ahead going through eyes and binocular imaginative and prescient, energy, velocity and stealth.
Some carnivores are scavengers, feeding on carrion, together with the stays of different carnivores’ kills. Scavengers have diversifications resembling acute senses for finding meals, and powerful claws, enamel or payments for breaking meals aside.
A carnivore with no pure predators of its personal is named an apex predator, or prime predator.
Examples of apex predators embody the tiger, lion, orca and nice white shark. Different carnivores, such because the smaller wild cats, most seals and lots of small sharks, regardless of being carnivores, should be prey for different animals.
Carnivore Vs Carnivoran
A carnivore is any meat-eater; a carnivoran is a member of a selected group of animals: the mammalian order Carnivora.
Carnivora is a gaggle of mammals that features households resembling Felidae (the cat household), Canidae (the canine household) and Ursidae (the bear household). Pinnipeds (seals, sea lions and the walrus) are a department of carnivorans tailored to life within the sea.
All carnivorans (together with pinnipeds) share a standard, carnivorous ancestor. Whereas most residing carnivorans are carnivores (e.g. all cats and pinnipeds), some carnivorans are omnivorous (i.e. most bears and badgers). The large panda, regardless of being a carnivoran, is sort of fully herbivorous.
Carnivorous Animals Checklist
African Wild Canine
- Scientific identify: Lycaon pictus
- Kind of animal: Mammal
- Household: Canidae (the canine household)
- The place discovered: Africa
- Conservation standing: Endangered
The African wild canine, which is often known as each the African looking canine and the African painted canine, is a member of the canine household present in sub-Saharan Africa.
This huge and distinctively-colored wild canine lives in scattered colonies all through sub-Saharan Africa. The species is uncommon and infrequently seen. An endangered species, its habitat has turn out to be extremely fragmented resulting from human exercise.
The African wild canine lives in packs that consist of seven to fifteen people on common, though packs containing as much as 40 African wild canine have been recorded. Unusually amongst animals that reside in teams, it’s the males that stick with the pack and the females that disperse to affix different packs.
The pack hunts utilizing teamwork, pursuing its prey–sometimes medium-sized antelopes–till the sufferer tires and might be overcome.
Antelope species hunted by the African wild canine embody the impala, Thompson’s gazelle, larger kudu and blue wildebeest.
Regardless of the African wild canine’s prey sometimes being at the least twice its dimension, the canine is a highly-efficient hunter, with a hit price larger than that of each lions and hyenas.
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American Bullfrog
- Scientific identify: Lithobates catesbeianus
- Kind of animal: Amphibian
- Household: Ranidae
- Conservation standing: Least Concern
The American bullfrog is a big frog present in lakes, ponds and different wetland habitats all through a lot of North America. Through the mating season, male bull frogs make a bull-like bellow, from which the species will get its identify.
Like most frogs, the American bullfrog is carnivorous. The amphibian preys on all kinds of invertebrates and vertebrates, and isn’t a fussy eater, devouring any animal it could possibly slot in its mouth.
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Axolotl
- Scientific Title: Ambystoma mexicanum
- Kind of Animal: Amphibian
- Household: Ambystomatidae
- The place Discovered: North America
- Conservation Standing: Critically Endangered
The axolotl is a critically endangered salamander present in solely a small variety of canals and lakes in Mexico Metropolis.
The axolotl is of nice curiosity to scientists resulting from its capability to regenerate not solely misplaced limbs, but additionally elements of the attention, coronary heart and mind. The species can be saved as a pet.
The axolotl differs from many amphibians in that it doesn’t bear metamorphosis. At the same time as an grownup, the axolotl stays fully-aquatic, respiration with gills somewhat than with lungs.
Salamanders are members of the amphibian order Urodela. Like all salamanders, the axolotl is a carnivore. It eats all kinds of invertebrates and small fish, finding its prey by odor and sucking the meals into its mouth with a sudden gulping movement.
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Crocodiles
- Kind of animal: Reptile
- Household: Crocodylidae
- The place discovered: Africa, North America, South America, Asia, Australia
Crocodiles are massive, semi-aquatic reptiles belonging to the household Crocodylidae. Their closest family members are alligators, caimans and gharials; all belong to the reptilian order Crocodilia and collectively are generally known as “crocodilians”.
All 18 residing crocodile species, along with the opposite crocodilians, are carnivorous.
Crocodiles sometimes hunt by permitting their prey to attract close to earlier than launching themselves forwards, gripping their prey of their extremely highly effective jaws and pulling it backwards into the water. Crocodiles swallow stones, which can assist the digestive course of.
Surprisingly, some crocodiles have been recorded consuming fruit.
The most important crocodile species is the saltwater crocodile, which might attain lengths in extra of 6 m / 20 ft; the smallest is the 1.5 m / 5 ft. African dwarf crocodile.
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Eagle
- Kind of animal: Chook
- Household: Accipitridae
- The place discovered: All continents besides Antarctica
Eagles are massive birds of prey belonging to the household Accipitridae, which can be dwelling to different predatory birds resembling hawks, kites, harriers and Outdated World vultures.
Two of the biggest eagle teams are the “true eagles” of genus Aquila, and the “sea eagles” of genus Haliaeetus.
Examples of true eagles embody the golden eagle and the wedge-tailed eagle; examples of sea eagles embody the bald eagle and the white-tailed eagle.
Traits of eagles embody massive dimension, massive hooked invoice, highly effective talons, glorious imaginative and prescient and the power to fly (and dive) at excessive velocity. These diversifications assist to make eagles fearsome predators, able to taking prey a number of occasions bigger than themselves.
An eagle’s nest is named an eyrie.
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Hellbender
- Scientific Title: Cryptobranchus alleganiensis
- Kind of Animal: Amphibian
- Household: Cryptobranchidae
- The place Discovered: North America
- Conservation Standing: Susceptible
The hellbender is an amphibian that lives in fast-flowing rivers and streams within the jap United States.
Regardless of being the smallest member of the large salamander household, Cryptobranchidae, the hellbender is the biggest amphibian present in North America, reaching a size of as much as 74 cm / 29 in. (The opposite large salamanders are present in Asia.)
Not like many amphibians, which might reside away from water after present process metamorphosis, the hellbender stays absolutely aquatic even in maturity.
The folds of pores and skin that run alongside the perimeters of the hellbender’s physique are capable of take in oxygen from the water. A lot of the oxygen required by the amphibian is obtained through the wrinkled frills of pores and skin working alongside the perimeters of its physique.
Like all salamanders (and most amphibians), the hellbender is a carnivore. It preys primarily on crayfish, however will take quite a few different sorts of each invertebrate and vertebrate prey, together with different salamanders.
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Komodo Dragon
- Scientific identify: Varanus komodoensis
- Kind of animal: Reptile
- Household: Varanidae
- The place discovered: Asia
- Conservation standing: Endangered
The Komodo dragon is the world’s largest lizard, reaching lengths of over 3 m / 9.8 toes and weights of round 165 kg / 364 lbs. This fearsome meat-eater is discovered not simply on the Indonesian island of Komodo (from which it will get its identify), but additionally two different, neighboring, islands.
A carnivore, the Komodo dragon feeds primarily on carrion, however may even hunt its personal prey, together with animals a lot bigger than itself. Prey focused by the lizard ranges from birds to massive animals resembling wild pigs and water buffalo.
When looking, the Komodo dragon makes use of an ambush technique, ready for an animal to come back shut earlier than pouncing, then following the prey till it succumbs both from blood loss as a result of lizard’s anti-clotting venom, or an infection attributable to micro organism within the Komodo dragon’s saliva.
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Lion
- Scientific identify: Panthera leo
- Kind of animal: Mammal
- Household: Felidae
- The place discovered: Africa, Asia
- Conservation standing: Susceptible
The lion is the second-largest member of the cat household; solely the tiger is bigger. The one massive cat that isn’t solitary, the lion lives in teams referred to as “prides”.
As a result of quantity of vitality that’s spent looking and digesting massive prey, a lion might spend 20 to 21 hours a day sleeping.
The lion, like all cats, is an obligate carnivore – it could possibly solely get the vitamins it wants from flesh.
The lion’s most popular prey objects are medium sized ungulates (hoofed animals), however it should additionally eat carrion and steal meals caught by different carnivores, resembling hyenas and leopards.
A lot of the world’s lions reside in Africa, however there’s a small inhabitants of round 650 lions that reside in a small space in India’s Gir Forest. These Asiatic lions are barely smaller than their African cousins.
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Mongoose
- Kind of animal: Mammal
- Household: Herpestidae
- The place discovered: Europe, Africa, Asia
Mongooses are small carnivorans (members of the order Carnivora) with lengthy our bodies, lengthy tails and quick legs. The 29 species of mongoose make up the household Herpestidae.
Mongooses are present in Africa and Eurasia. They’re proof against the venom produced by some snakes.
Mongooses are primarily carnivorous, preying on a wide range of animals, together with small mammals, reptiles and bugs.
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Octopus
- Kind of animal: Mollusk
- Order: Octopoda
- The place discovered: Oceans Worldwide
Octopuses are soft-bodied marine mollusks with eight legs. The 310 species of octopus (supply) make up the order Octopoda, which is an element of a bigger group of mollusks, the category Cephalopoda. Different cephalopods embody squid, cuttlefish and nautiloids.
Octopuses prey on a wide range of animals, however crucial prey for a lot of species are bivalves – mollusks with two-part shells, and crustaceans resembling crabs and crayfish.
Octopuses both prize open the shells of their shellfish prey, or create small holes within the shells by means of which they inject venom.
Octopuses are very smart, with a brain-to-body dimension ratio larger than every other invertebrate. Species such because the widespread octopus are capable of resolve puzzles, and within the wild are identified to steal prey from lobster pots.
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Orca
- Scientific identify: Orcinus orca
- Kind of animal: Mammal
- Household: Delphinidae
- The place discovered: Oceans worldwide
- Conservation standing: Information Poor
The orca, or killer whale, is the largest member of the oceanic dolphin household, Delphinidae. Resulting from its massive dimension and black and white markings, the orca is among the most recognizable cetaceans. (The cetaceans are a gaggle of fully-aquatic marine mammals that features whales, dolphins and porpoises.)
The killer whale is probably the most widely-distributed cetacean, and is present in the entire world’s oceans.
Like all dolphins, the orca belongs to a gaggle of cetaceans generally known as “toothed whales”. All toothed whales are carnivores.
The orca, resulting from its dimension, energy, and intelligence, is an apex predator. It hunts all kinds of animals, together with fish and marine mammals resembling seals and whales.
Pods of killer whales typically use teamwork to seize and overcome their prey.
The orca has good eyesight however depends totally on echolocation when looking. It’s an environment friendly predator with a excessive success price, consuming round 136 kg / 300 lbs. of meals per day.
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Owls
- Kind of animal: Chook
- Order: Strigiformes
- The place discovered: All continents besides Antarctica
Owls are predatory birds within the order Strigiformes. They’re highly-distinctive birds, with most owls having rounded faces, massive eyes, and an upright stance. Most owls are nocturnal.
239 residing owl species are at the moment acknowledged. (supply)
An owl’s massive eyes present glorious night-time imaginative and prescient, however many owls find prey by sound, somewhat than by sight.
An owl’s ears are positioned asymmetrically, that means that sound reaches every ear at barely totally different occasions. This allows owls to precisely choose from which course a sound is coming.
Owls sometimes hunt small rodents, however relying on dimension and species additionally goal bugs, bigger mammals, birds and fish.
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Polar Bear
- Scientific identify: Ursus maritimus
- Kind of animal: Mammal
- Household: Ursidae
- The place discovered: North America, Europe, Asia
- Conservation standing: Susceptible
Whereas most bears are omnivorous, the polar bear’s food plan consists primarily of meat.
The distinctive white bear is the largest of the eight residing bear species, and a prime predator within the Arctic area through which it’s discovered.
Seals, particularly the ringed seal, kind the majority of the polar bear’s food plan. Different seal species generally focused by the bear embody the bearded, harp, harbor and hooded seal.
The polar bear will typically lie in await a number of hours by a seal respiration gap, utilizing its glorious sense of odor to detect each the situation of a gap, and the breath of a seal when it emerges from the water.
The polar bear additionally stalks prey, utilizing stealth to slowly strategy a resting seal earlier than pouncing.
The stays of a polar bear kill are an vital supply of meals for different Arctic meat-eaters, together with the Arctic fox.
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Scorpions
- Subphylum: Chelicerata
- Order: Scorpiones
Scorpions are arachnids within the order Scorpiones. Scorpions have eight legs, and might be differentiated from different arachnids by their pedipalps, which take the type of massive pincers, and by their prolonged tails, that are geared up with a venomous stinger.
Bugs kind the majority of the food plan of most scorpions. Small reptiles and mammals can also be taken. Scorpions can sense the vibrations produced by potential prey with highly-sensitive hairs on their our bodies. Scorpions usually solely sting bigger prey animals, their pincers being adequate to beat smaller species.
Out of the 2,684 at the moment acknowledged scorpion species (supply), solely a really small share are able to inflicting a sting deadly to a wholesome grownup human. Even a sting from a deathstalker scorpion – one of the crucial harmful scorpion species – is never deadly, particularly if medical therapy is offered.
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Sea Stars / Starfish
- Kind of animal: Echinoderm
- Class: Asteroidea
- The place discovered: Oceans worldwide
Sea stars, often known as starfish, are a gaggle of marine invertebrates that make up the category Asteroidea. (Regardless of being generally known as “starfish”, sea stars should not fish!)
Most sea stars have 5 arms. On the finish of every arm is a gaggle of light-sensitive “eye” cells. Sea stars hunt by contact and odor. They prey on animals resembling sponges and small mollusks.
Some sea stars have specialised diets; the crown-of-thorns starfish is infamous for focusing on corals. Outbreaks of this massive starfish can decimate coral reefs.
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Seals
- Kind of animal: Mammal
- Clade: Pinnipedia
- The place discovered: Largely temperate and polar waters
Seals, along with sea lions and the walrus, make up group of marine mammals generally known as Pinnipeds.
There are two seal households: Otariidae, the “eared seal” household, is dwelling to sea lions and fur seals; Phocidae, the “earless seal” household, is dwelling to the “true seals”.
Examples of eared seals embody the California sea lion (Zalophus californius), and the northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus).
Examples of earless seals embody the ringed seal, (Pusa hispida), and the southern elephant seal, (Mirounga leonina), which is each the world’s largest seal, and the world’s largest carnivoran. (Be aware: carnivorans are not the identical as carnivores – see the notice on the prime of the web page.)
The “true seals” are extra streamlined, and able to swimming extra effectively, than their eared cousins. Nonetheless, they’re very clumsy on land, being unable to stroll with their hind flippers.
Eared seals are extraordinarily quick and maneuverable within the water, and higher capable of transfer round on land (though nonetheless clumsy), having the ability to use each their fore and hind flippers to maneuver.
Seals eat all kinds of sea animals, with fish, cephalopods and crustaceans being the marine mammals’ important prey.
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Sharks
- Kind of animal: Fish
- Class: Chondrichthyes
- The place discovered: Oceans Worldwide
Practically the entire 500-plus shark species are carnivores.
Sharks are a number of the best-known predators of the oceans (solely a handful of shark species, together with the river sharks, are present in freshwater habitats).
Species such because the nice white shark, tiger shark and bull shark are identified to assault people (though such assaults are uncommon).
Sharks are quick, silent and highly effective predators. Their mouths are lined with a number of rows of enamel, that are frequently changed by means of the fish’s lifetime, with new enamel being pushed forwards on a “conveyor belt” system.
Sharks have a “sixth sense” within the type of a whole lot of electroreceptive organs referred to as ampullae of Lorenzini embedded of their pores and skin. Utilizing these, a shark can sense {the electrical} fields produced by the muscle tissues of potential prey.
Whereas the skeletons of most fish are made from bone, these of sharks are made from cartilage, a tricky, but versatile pure substance. Sharks, together with rays and skates, belong to a gaggle of fish generally known as “cartilaginous fish” on behalf of their cartilage skeletons.
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Shrikes
- Kind of animal: Chook
- Household: Laniidae
- The place discovered: Europe, Asia, North America, Africa
The order Passeriformes is a big group of birds which incorporates teams resembling crows, wrens, thrushes and finches. Passerines are often known as “perching birds” or “music birds”.
Whereas most passerines are omnivores, shrikes, which make up the household Laniidae, are carnivores.
Shrikes are sometimes thrush-sized birds with highly effective, hooked payments that mirror their carnivorous life-style.
Shrikes feed on bugs and small vertebrates. The carnivorous birds typically impale their prey on thorns (or barbed wire) for later consumption. Resulting from this behavior, shrikes are sometimes generally known as “butcherbirds”.
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Snakes
- Kind of animal: Reptile
- Order: Squamata
- The place discovered: All continents besides Antarctica
Snakes are reptiles that belong, together with lizards, within the order Squamata. Though snakes lack limbs, their ancestors had been limbed lizards. Not like (most) lizards, snakes lack eyelids and subsequently can not blink.
There are simply over 4,000 residing snake species. (supply)
All snakes are carnivorous. Most are generalist carnivores, preying on a wide range of animals, whereas others are extra specialised; the king cobra preys primarily on different snakes.
Snakes have quite a few diversifications for looking, together with a versatile decrease jaw that permits prey objects to be swallowed complete (snakes can’t break their meals up into smaller items) and the power to find prey by “tasting” the air with their delicate forked tongues.
Many snakes are venomous, whereas some snakes overcome their prey by constriction, wrapping their our bodies round their prey and steadily tightening their grasp.
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Spiders
Spiders are arachnids with eight legs, two-part our bodies, silk-producing spinnerets on the stomach, and hole fangs generally known as “chelicerae” with which the spider injects venom into its prey.
There are 50,783 spider species at the moment listed within the World Spider Catalog, a database of spider species. (supply)
Practically all spiders are carnivores; solely a handful of species are identified to eat a major quantity of plant materials.
Spiders make use of a variety of looking methods. Orb-weaver spiders resembling North America’s yellow backyard spider and the European backyard spider spin intricate flat webs to seize insect prey. Massive species resembling South America’s Goliath birdeater and Asia’s large huntsman actively hunt their prey. Australian funnel internet spiders such because the Sydney funnel-web spider construct burrows from which they ambush their prey.
Though the overwhelming majority of world’s spiders are innocent to people, plenty of species are capable of inflict painful, and in some circumstances, life-threatening, bites.
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Squid
- Kind of animal: Mollusk
- Class: Cephalopoda
Squid are cephalopod mollusks which, like cuttlefish, have eight legs and two tentacles. Not like cuttlefish, squid lack a cuttlebone. As an alternative, their our bodies include a tough, feather-shaped formed construction referred to as a pen.
Squid are predatory animals, looking their prey by sight and utilizing jet propulsion to journey at excessive velocity by means of the water. Their prey consists of fish, crustaceans and different cephalopods, together with different squid (generally of the identical species).
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Tasmanian Satan
- Scientific identify: Sarcophilus harrisii
- Kind of animal: Mammal
- The place discovered: Australia
- Conservation standing: Endangered
The Tasmanian satan is the world’s largest carnivorous marsupial. It’s a member of the household Dasyuridae, which can be dwelling to quolls and different primarily carnivorous / insectivorous marsupials.
Most wild Tasmanian devils are discovered on the Australian island state of Tasmania. A small quantity have been reintroduced onto the Australian mainland.
The Tasmanian satan will get its identify for its terrifying night-time screeches and aggressive feeding habits.
The Tasmanian satan is endangered as a result of unfold of Satan Facial Tumor Illness (DFTD), which has triggered a big decline within the species’ inhabitants.
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Tiger
- Scientific Title: Panthera tigris
- Kind Of Animal: Mammal
- Household: Felidae
- The place Discovered: Asia
- Conservation Standing: Endangered
The tiger is the world’s largest species of cat. With its distinctive orange coat and black stripes, it is usually one of many world’s most recognizable animals.
Regardless of being discovered over a variety stretching from Siberia to India, the tiger is extraordinarily uncommon. There are regarded as fewer than 4,000 tigers left within the wild. Sadly, the principle risk to the tiger is unlawful poaching.
The tiger is an apex predator wherever it’s discovered. This highly effective carnivore is able to bringing down prey as massive as a buffalo or gaur (Indian bison).
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Wolf
- Scientific Title: Canis lupus
- Kind of Animal: Mammal
- Household: Canidae
- Conservation Standing: Least Concern
The wolf, or grey wolf to provide the species its full identify, is the largest member of the canine household, Canidae (though some home canine breeds are bigger).
Thirty-seven subspecies (“sorts”) of wolf are at the moment listed within the Mammal Species of the World database. (supply)
A extremely social animal, the wolf lives in a household group generally known as a “pack”. All members of the pack defend and take care of the pups.
A carnivore, the wolf hunts each alone and in packs. It will possibly run at speeds of 61.2 km / 38 miles an hour briefly bursts whereas chasing prey. It’s opportunistic and can feed on carrion when given the prospect.
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Wolverine
- Scientific identify: Canis lupus
- Kind of animal: Mammal
- Household: Mustelidae
- The place discovered: North America, Europe, Asia
- Conservation standing: Susceptible
The wolverine is among the largest members of the weasel household, Mustelidae, which can be dwelling to animals resembling badgers and otters.
Present in chilly northern boreal forests of the Northern Hemisphere, the wolverine competes with bigger predators resembling wolves, bears, and the mountain lion.
Primarily a scavenger, the wolverine typically feeds on the stays of prey captured by bigger carnivores. The species can be a succesful hunter, feeding primarily on rodents, but additionally tackling bigger prey resembling deer every now and then.