Wildlife food

Wildlife food comprises plant, animal, and other natural resources eaten by wild animals. Its availability and distribution shape animal diets, movement, and survival.

Diet: The foods an organism consumes and the pattern of its consumption. Wildlife food becomes biologically meaningful through the diets animals assemble from available resources.
Food availability: The amount of food accessible to an organism in a particular place and time. Availability links habitat conditions to how much wildlife food animals can obtain.
Habitat management: The planned alteration or maintenance of habitats to meet ecological or human objectives. Managers can improve wildlife food by protecting or restoring resource-producing habitat.
Migration: The regular movement of animals between regions, often linked to seasonal resources. Many animals migrate as food availability shifts between habitats.
Food web: A network of feeding relationships among organisms in an ecosystem. Wildlife food links consumers to plants, prey, and other organisms across ecosystems.
Carrying capacity: The population size an environment can sustain over time under specified conditions. Food supplies often constrain how many wild animals an area can support.
Supplemental feeding: The deliberate provision of food to wild animals beyond their natural resources. It adds food directly, but can alter behavior, health, and ecological interactions.
Population dynamics: Changes in population size and structure over time. Food supply can affect survival and reproduction, changing wildlife population trajectories.
Herbivore: An animal that feeds primarily on plants or algae. Herbivores depend directly on plant resources that make up much wildlife food.
Seasonality: Regular changes in environmental conditions and biological activity across the year. Seasonal shifts alter the timing and abundance of wildlife foods.

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