Study
The components of predation as revealed by a study of small-mammal predation of the European pine sawfly
Holling, Crawford S.
The Canadian Entomologist, 1959
Measured how many sawfly cocoons small mammals took at a range of cocoon densities, and separated the result into the time spent searching and the time spent handling each item, using a blindfolded human picking sandpaper discs as a physical analogue of the same process.
- Studied in
- Neodiprion sertifer, Mammalia
- Sample size
- field predation trials plus laboratory analogue
The number of prey taken rises with prey density and then levels off, because every capture consumes handling time that cannot be spent searching. Predation rate is therefore limited by the predator’s time budget rather than by prey availability alone.
What it means
The authors' reading, and ours. Where they differ, that difference is the point.
How the authors put it
Predation should be modelled as a sequence of separable components — search, encounter, capture, handling — rather than as a single rate.
How NatureHQ reads it
The record that lets NatureHQ describe predation as a sequence with stages that can fail independently, which is the frame the whole predation family uses. It is also the origin of a useful correction: a predator surrounded by prey does not eat proportionally more, because eating takes time.
- One predator–prey system, and the mechanism was generalised from it rather than surveyed across many.
- The sandpaper-disc analogue demonstrates the geometry of the argument rather than the biology of any animal.
What this study is used for on NatureHQ
One study can inform several subjects. Here is everywhere this one is cited.
Predation
A hunt is a sequence — detect, approach, attack, subdue, keep — and it can fail at every stage. Where success has been measured properly, most attempts end without a kill.
Predation
Most of what a predator does to a prey population happens without a single kill. Animals feed less, move differently and stay more alert wherever risk is higher, and those changes have real costs.
Published by: Canadian Science PublishingPublished in a Canadian Science Publishing journal.
Checked against Crossref on 2026-09-28, and they agree on the title, the authors and the year.
NatureHQ summarises research in its own words and does not reproduce published text. Reviewed 2026-09-03.