Take caterpillars for example: if a bird eats a fatally poisonous caterpillar and dies immediately, it learned nothing, the caterpillar gained nothing for being poisonous, and that caterpillar species will continue to be preyed upon.
But if a caterpillar is only mildly toxic, and a bird eats it, the bird may survive and learn to avoid things that look like it, and that caterpillar species as a whole benefits as the cycle continues.
Am I missing something obvious? Wouldn’t it make more sense for mild toxicity to prevail as the more advantageous trait, over time?
edit: another point of confusion — more toxic animals tend to advertise their unsavoriness with bright colors. We generally accept that predators know to avoid brightly colored prey, but if they die during their very first encounter with one, how is that info passed along to other predators?
In: Biology
If they are extremely toxic and the trait remains it means that is advantageous for their survival.
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