Motive for Killing: What Drives Prey Choice in Wild Predators?

Carnivorous animals are assumed to consume prey to optimise energy intake. Recently, however, studies using Nutritional Geometry (NG) have demonstrated that specific blends of macronutrients (e.g. protein, fat and in some cases carbohydrates), rather than energyper se, drive the food selection and intake of some vertebrate and invertebrate predators in the laboratory. A vital next step is to examine the role of nutrients in the foraging decisions of predators in the wild, but extendingNGstudies of carnivores from the laboratory to the field presents several challenges. Biologging technology offers a solution for collecting relevant data which when combined withNGwill yield new insights into wild predator nutritional ecology.