Lesson plan
Predator trap
and Aenocyon dirus fight over a Mammuthus columbi carcass in the La Brea Tar Pits, risking becoming trapped themselves A predator trap is a natural hazard where prey animals become trapped or incapacitated, and the attracted predators suffer the same fate. More predators, scavengers, insects and birds become attracted to this mounting accumulation of carrion, until a wide variety of animals are caught and ultimately killed by the hazard. This may happen many times over. Typically, the number of lured predators will greatly outnumber the prey, thus providing the name. A famous example is the La Brea Tar Pits site, where predators were attracted to struggling animals that had become trapped in tar. It has also been speculated that the mudstone deposits at the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry may have been a predator trap, although more recent research has questioned this hypothesis. The "Valley of Death" near the Kikhpinych volcano in Russia forms a predator trap every spring when it fills with poisonous volcanic gases, initially killing birds, which then attract larger predators, which also succumb to the gas.
Article summary
and Aenocyon dirus fight over a Mammuthus columbi carcass in the La Brea Tar Pits, risking becoming trapped themselves A predator trap is a natural hazard where prey animals become trapped or incapacitated, and the attracted predators suffer the same fate. More predators, scavengers, insects and birds become attracted to this mounting accumulation of carrion, until a wide variety of animals are caught and ultimately killed by the hazard. This may happen many times over. Typically, the number of lured predators will greatly outnumber the prey, thus providing the name. A famous example is the La Brea Tar Pits site, where predators were attracted to struggling animals that had become trapped in tar. It has also been speculated that the mudstone deposits at the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry may have been a predator trap, although more recent research has questioned this hypothesis. The "Valley of Death" near the Kikhpinych volcano in Russia forms a predator trap every spring when it fills with poisonous volcanic gases, initially killing birds, which then attract larger predators, which also succumb to the gas.
Key claims
No claims recorded.
Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
No sources recorded.
Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.