Often these large prey animals are difficult to find and kill. A hungry mountain lion kills such animals as raccoons, rabbits, porcupines and even coyotes if it surprises them. Herbivores, or plant eaters, also consume a wide variety of foods. Deer eat the tender shoots of a number of different varieties of shrubs. Rabbits nibble on various grasses and herbs.
Animals often consume various foods at different times of the year.
Some foods such as dandelions, foxtails, and clover are only available to the rabbit during the warm months. In colder weather, after the arrival of snow or in early spring before the plants have begun their new growth, the only foods that are available to the rabbit are the twigs of bushes such as dogwood, wild cherry, and alders. In the deepest part of winter, when snow is piled high, the rabbits might have to survive on a diet of spruce needles. Each species of animal has many different sources of food and is in turn food for many other species. To see more clearly the complexity of these interrelationships a food web diagram is used.