Carnivore
An animal that feeds primarily on other animals. Carnivores have adaptations for hunting, killing, and digesting meat, including sharp teeth, claws, and shorter digestive tracts.
Used in the Books
This term appears in 8 chapters:
"...0 gigatons of carbon. Level 2 - Primary Consumers (herbivores): Eat plants. Biomass: ~10 gigatons of carbon. Level 3 - Secondary Consumers (carnivores that eat herbivores): Eat primary consumers. Biomass: ~1 gigaton of carbon. Level 4 - Tertiary Consumers (apex predators): Eat secondary consume..."
"45% without - Leadership transition: Always to most knowledgeable, not strongest Social Currency (Great Apes, Social Carnivores): - Bonobo females: Grooming time predicts hierarchy position (r=0.81) - Wolf pack cohesion: Breeding pair performs 60% of group greetings - Chimpanz..."
"...ed with jaw structure; changing tooth shape often requires changing jaw mechanics. This creates constraints that prevent full convergence - mammalian carnivores have diverse tooth forms (shearing carnassials in cats, bone-crushing molars in hyenas, fish-grabbing teeth in seals) because jaw integration creates..."
"Specialization proved equally fatal. Herbivores adapted to specific plants died when those plants vanished. Carnivores adapted to specific prey died when that prey went extinct. In contrast, small-bodied generalists survived: mammals that could eat diverse foods (see..."
"..., Antarctic marine ecosystems) show consistent topological properties: 1. Short food chains: Median chain length (primary producer → herbivore → carnivore → top predator) is 3-5 trophic levels. Energy transfer inefficiency (~10% efficiency per level) limits chain length - after 5 levels, insufficient en..."
And 3 more chapters...
Biological Context
Carnivores sit higher on food chains and require more territory per individual than herbivores. Obligate carnivores (like cats) cannot survive on plants; facultative carnivores can supplement with other foods. Carnivore populations are limited by prey availability.
Business Application
Carnivore businesses acquire value from other businesses—through acquisition, competitive displacement, or extracting margins from supply chains. They require less volume but higher value per transaction. Limited by the 'prey' base in their market.