Natural enemies
Most animals have natural enemies—other animals that like to eat them.
It’s night on a desert in the United States. A wolf spider is hunting.
The spider is the natural enemy of beetles and other insects.
The spider, hurrying over the sand, meets a scorpion. And the scorpion
is the spider’s natural enemy. With its two front claws the scorpion
grabs the spider. The scorpion’s long tail flashes down and its sharp
sting stabs into the spider. Then the scorpion begins to eat the spider.
After a while the scorpion finishes. A bright-eyed grasshopper mouse
comes around a rock. The mouse sees the scorpion. The mouse dashes
forward and bites off the scorpion’s poisonous tail. Then the mouse
pushes the scorpion into its mouth. This kind of mouse is the natural
enemy of the scorpion.
The mouse cleans its whiskers and trots off. Suddenly, something swoops
through the air. It’s a screech owl— the mouse’s natural enemy. The
owl grabs the mouse with its sharp claws.
Few other animals hunt owls to eat, so the owl is safe from natural
enemies. So are wolves, bears, lions, tigers, and other big meat-eating
animals. Old age is their worst enemy. For when a hunting animal gets
too old to move quickly, it can’t catch anything. Then it starves to
death.
Scorpion and Spider
The yellow scorpion has caught the brown spider and will eat it. A
scorpion is a spider’s natural enemy.
