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You’re neglecting an important arena in the predator/prey dynamic:
Thought.
If your predators can feel the thoughts of things around them and the prey can detect predatory intent, what’s to stop the predators from evolving effective thought patterns? Many creatures in such a universe would evolve behaviours and senses entirely focused on exploiting thought, ...
50
Portal trees.
Plants need sun. They compete with one another to get higher and get the sun. And plants struggle with herbivores. Stuff shows up (especially bugs!) and eats their leaves.
The portal offers a fix for both problems. A portal tree takes root by the portal and sends thru roots or branches. These appear high in the sky. There is so much sun ...
41
Because they’re better at it than the goblins are.
Goblins aren't necessarily dumb, but they are panicky and prone to squabbles. In large groups, with nothing to rally behind, they scatter easily and lack co-ordination due to internal fighting. Even smart goblin sages and witch doctors can’t bring a horde together in pursuit of one goal.
But they’re smart ...
28
Goblins have a stereotyped view of humans.
A Ukrainian woman once told me "if he is not a Jew, he is not a dentist". It was said in the context of a discussion about finding a good dentist. A stereotype: the best dentists are Jewish. It did not surprise me to hear it, although it took a Ukrainian to say it out loud. That stereotype is in the U....
26
Some hunters, such as hyenas and humans, do not ambush their prey; rather, they tire the prey out until they die of exhaustion. We would see more predators with high endurance, with the ability to run many miles to wear down their prey.
24
Mindless reflexive predators
There are not many predatory plants, but there are a few. Venus flytraps have no thoughts whatsoever. They get by just fine.
Temporary comas or microsleep
Being an ambush predators will still be possible. You won't be able to stalk prey without them knowing they're being followed, but you can still surprise them and that can ...
23
Doublethink
For an ecosystem to allow for predation in this world, sentient creatures with the most advanced consciousness need to have this skill. It was first described by George Orwell in his book 1984:
To know and not to know, to be conscious of complete truthfulness while telling carefully constructed lies, to hold simultaneously two opinions which ...
22
From the Forest Comes the Handle for the Axe
There's an old fable about woodcutters and trees, which essentially boils down as thus: the handle to the axe to cut down the forest came from the forest itself. If no tree in the forest ever became an axe, then the forest could not be cut down. Similarly, the best way to destroy something is by using it's own ...
19
Edit 3: I answered before OP explained how it worked exactly.
I'm guessing that using the portal conserve the momentum and that throwing an object in the portal will make it exit with the same speed and direction.
I also assume portals are one-way.
Long-range communication
A lot of species use the portal by throwing different objects into the portals.
Herd-...
16
Mcguffin babies are carrion eaters. They lay their eggs on the bodies of the dead to ensure they have a suitable food source. However as they're so much larger than the equivalent flies, they need a considerable supply of dead bodies to feed their voracious young.
As such they've evolved to cause uncontrollable desire in susceptible mammals, such that they ...
15
Portal-Salmon, which aren't actually fish...
Terrestrial salmon spawn in rivers, live in the ocean,and when it's time to die they swim upstream to their original spawning ground to mate, incubate, and die. Let's run with this example.
Portal-salmon are actually an insect (a big insect, weighing up to 0.5 pounds or 0.23 Kg) that are fertilized in the air. ...
14
Humans have a longer lifespan
There are several reasons why this is advantageous:
You don't have to raise a new leader every few years
With age comes respect, so with more age comes more respect
A long-lived human can accumulate experience and wisdom a Goblin couldn't hope to achieve
A longer lifespan means a longer childhood means more time to properly ...
13
Perhaps Goblins look at leadership differently than humans. If leadership was a terrible burden, with no tangible rewards other than serving the population he/she leads. Then it would be logical to steal humans to fill the role that no Goblin would ever want.
12
How do I explain why the mcguffin evolved to be wanted by humans in
the first place?
All evolutionary traits are, or where at some point, beneficial to a species survival. This includes traits that have no apparent use other than being attractive to others. Being cute can keep you alive, just ask any baby. If other beings like you, and are willing to ...
11
Vampires might like to eat their enemies. But they don't eat enemies on the battle field. Someone will come up and kick them, hard. It is analogous to soldiers who have sex with their captives, or members of a conquered population. Those soldiers are not having sex with enemies on the battlefield. I don't think. Not in a pitched battle anyway.
...
9
Neverland Birds: A family of birds with an uncanny ability to sense portals.
The Neverland bird is an enormous dragon-like predator who feeds off the many large birds and flying fish abundant on the planet. It uniquely almost never lands once it takes flight, but it's enormous size means it is incapable of taking off on its own. When the birds reproduce, ...
9
Using the preys senses against them
Many species on earth use tricks to capture prey. Use of flashy lights/colors, loud noises or overpowering scents to distract the prey, and in some cases, stun them. In many creatures, if you overload the senses, they could possibly just lock up. Think something like a flashbang.
If a predator develops a means to overload ...
9
If there was a driving force, then very quickly; otherwise it's extremely variable
If you WANT your two groups to be unable to interbreed, then you can have the colonists use some sort of genetic manipulation as their technology starts declining to make them more compatible with their new native world. I imagine them living in domes, and realizing that ...
8
An early platyrrhine primate like Perupithecus
The oldest known platyrrhines date to 35-38 Ma. They are thought to have gotten to South America some time before that, potentially at the same time as the earliest South American rodents, which are about 42 Ma. That gives you about 7-8 Ma to play with, about the same amount of time as it took us to evolve from ...
7
Predators are simply stronger
You can simply make the death inevitable. In many cases, predators can be simply faster, stronger, or thinking and reacting faster/better than their prey. Sure, it could turn into the evolutionary armaments race, but I would say that evolution supports diversity. Every specie has its advantages and disadvantages, which can be ...
7
The same way as a caterpillar feeds off of leaves before it metamorphoses into a butterfly to feed off of nectar. Perhaps this 25 year hibernating period is actually part of the creature's life cycle where its entire body undergoes some sort of change causing them to consume the opposite emotion. You can then have a difference between "young" and &...
6
Flying squirrels.
The presence of one of these portals near their nest would allow them to more freely forage near the ground, as they wouldn't need to climb a tree to be able to take off (in case of imminent danger for instance). That means a much bigger abundance of food for the same area (anything that is found on the ground and not on trees). They would ...
6
In a countries with developed public transportation and a stable population of street dogs (read: Eastern Europe and former USSR) one can easily meet a dog that regularly catches a bus or a metro train.
From a dog viewpoint, the bus is a portal and the dog pretty much has the ability to use it.
6
Religious Icons
Considering that these creatures are biologically immortal, its not hard to imagine them taking on mythical, and then religious status among various cultures throughout history. I can imagine that they become religious icons for the people, direct physical proof that everlasting life is actually possible. People are willing to go to extreme ...
6
Also, note that some creatures like ravens are known for dropping hard prey (e.g. shellfish or turtles) from a great height onto a hard rock to break it open. The portals offer an easy way to do this, if a portal is located next to a rock or other hard surface: all a creature has to do is look down through the portal at the nearby rock and then throw the ...
6
A narration derived from remote audio surveillance, anthropological mission W44/21.3 commissioned by the Rigellian Collegiate Council, AE 32,182, to further understand the unique cultural leanings of the Nahini peoples.
Son, your Shenduai into manhood is approaching, and I need to tell you the epic of the Ocutage1
For the whole of your youth, my son, you ...
6
Sexual dimorphism for the purpose of intraspecific combat or mate quality recognition
Sexually dimorphic headgear is extremely, extremely common in the animal kingdom, ranging from insects to fishes to iguanas to Shringasaurus to proto-mammals to ungulates. Many species of ungulates, in particular, have very elaborate head ornaments in the males but much ...
6
Goblins have too much infighting between the different clans/families/groups. They realize they will never find a Goblin that all other Goblins would find acceptable as a leader. The different groups hate/distrust each other so much they could not accept a leader form another Goblin family.
So they kidnap a human and make them the leader, because their not a ...
6
If empathy is connects all beings, then ALL would be aware that life would be impossible without death. There would be no hunting, but I think maybe an "agreement" would be achieved - something like "Well miss lioness, our sick one agreed to feed your family". I just don't see the point in hunting if all KNOW eachothers needs.
Hunting is ...
6
Adrenaline, opiates, and metabolism: So assuming we want this to be biology, not magic, we need to break this down into its components. You have a creature that becomes strong and feels no pain during fights, and is able to heal quickly if it kills/harms enemies. An explanation for regeneration is a bit of a separate question, so I'll focus on the whys more ...
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