Prey

"When a system deviates from its setpoint, feedback pushes it back. Thermostats. Cruise control. Blood sugar regulation. Predator-prey populations. All negative feedback loops, all serving the same function: maintaining stability in an unstable world. The mechanism is simple: sensor..."

"...rought creates selection pressure on finch beak size. Winter creates selection pressure on animal fat storage. Predators create selection pressure on prey speed and camouflage. Selection pressure is the mechanism that converts variation into adaptation. Without pressure, variation persists randomly."

"Guam had no native snakes. Birds nested on the ground or low branches. When snakes arrived, they encountered: - Abundant, naive prey: Birds with no snake-avoidance behaviors - No predators: Nothing on Guam ate snakes - No competition: No other predator occupied the "tree-..."

"This isn't random wandering - it's optimized search. For sparse, randomly distributed resources (e.g., prey in open ocean), Lévy flights are mathematically optimal. Evidence: Researchers tracked wandering albatrosses with GPS."

"...buted Storage)**: - Definition: Scatter resources across multiple locations - Examples: Squirrels burying acorns, jays hiding seeds, leopards hanging prey in trees - Advantages: Low single-point failure risk (one cache stolen ≠ total loss), can distribute across optimal microclimates - Disadvantages: Hi..."