Experiments offering laboratory mice to caged raptors [6], [10] [14] elicited predatory behaviour which we consider specific only to small prey (confirmed by our video observations and also observed for small bird and reptile prey [9]).
This general behaviour is consistently observed in all raptors, with some variation.
Surprisingly little is known about the morphology of raptor talons and how they are employed during feeding behaviour.
These data were then assessed alongside new and published observations of raptor predatory activity to look for consistent patterns of behaviour that correlated with variation in talon and foot morphology at the family level.
Despite the ubiquity of raptors in terrestrial ecosystems, many aspects of their predatory behaviour remain poorly understood.
These are complemented by behaviour data taken from our observation of over 170 video sequences showing raptors and prey during capture, immobilisation, and ingestion (Supporting Information Table S2).
From this we conclude that our observations apply to all raptor taxa, and that it is most parsimonious that this is related to variation in predatory behaviour among families.
Pay your money, ride the Raptor.
