Original photo by Richard Stephen/ iStock
On a statistical level, some of the world’s most fearsome predators aren’t actually that fearsome. Wolves succeed in about only 20% of their attempts to catch prey, whereas lions enjoy a success rate of around 30% when working as a pack. Those numbers, though respectable, pale in comparison to the success rate of the mighty dragonfly, which catches about 95% of the prey it pursues — making it the world’s most successful hunter.
These insects do all their hunting in midair, of course, making the feat even more impressive; they mainly prey on small insects such as mosquitoes, flies, or butterflies. Scientists attribute this prowess to dragonflies’ nearly 360-degree field of vision, their individually controlled wings, and their brains’ unique ability to coordinate these instantaneous actions.
Oops, incorrect!
It's a factBaby dragonflies reside in water before reaching their adult form, and their larval stage can last between one and three years. As adults, they typically live just six to eight weeks.
Other surprisingly adept hunters include the harbor porpoise, whose success rate hovers at around 90% (allowing them to chow down on more than 500 small fish per hour), and African wild dogs, which capture their prey more than 60% of the time — though they often lose them to larger predators such as lions and hyenas.
Numbers Don't Lie
More Interesting Reads
The world’s smallest dragonfly is the ______.
Ready to reveal?
Confirm your email to play the next question?
The world’s smallest dragonfly is the scarlet dwarf.
One dragonfly species’ migration has been called “the most extraordinary journey in nature.”
The more you learn about dragonflies, the more astonished you’ll be by these tiny creatures. Consider the globe skimmer, for instance, which more than lives up to its name: The “winged wanderer,” as it’s often referred to, completes the longest migration of any insect, an 11,000-mile journey between India and Africa that Discover Magazine called “the most extraordinary journey in nature” — in part because it takes several generations to complete, meaning no single dragonfly can complete it itself.
At just a few centimeters long, globe skimmers can fly for 90 hours straight — albeit with a fair bit of assistance from wind, which is why the journey can only be undertaken at certain times of year. To keep their energy up, they eat small insects and aerial plankton. Their exact route has yet to be plotted, however, because globe skimmers are literally too small for any existing tracking devices.
Michael Nordine is a writer and editor living in Denver. A native Angeleno, he has two cats and wishes he had more.
top picks from the optimism network
Interesting Facts is part of Optimism, which publishes content that uplifts, informs, and inspires.
