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For instance, removing a predator may allow other animals to increase to the point where they wipe out other species; removing a prey species may cause predator populations to crash, or may allow predators to drive other prey species to extinction; and removing a plant species may result in the loss of animals that depend on it, like ...
An apex predator, also known as a top predator or superpredator, is a predator [a] at the top of a food chain, without natural predators of its own. [ 6 ] [ 7 ] Apex predators are usually defined in terms of trophic dynamics , meaning that they occupy the highest trophic levels .
A mesopredator is a predator that occupies a mid-ranking trophic level in a food web. [1] There is no standard definition of a mesopredator, but mesopredators are usually medium-sized carnivorous or omnivorous animals, such as raccoons, foxes, or coyotes. [2] [3] They are often defined by contrast from apex predators or prey in a particular ...
The green world hypothesis proposes that predators are the primary regulators of ecosystems: they are the reason the world is 'green', by regulating the herbivores that would otherwise consume all the greenery. [1] [2] It is also known as the HSS hypothesis, after Hairston, Smith and Slobodkin, the authors of the seminal paper on the subject. [3]
This one-predator/two-prey model has been explored by ecologists as early as 1925, but the term "apparent competition" was first coined by University of Florida ecologist Robert D. Holt in 1977. [ 13 ] [ 14 ] Holt found that field ecologists at the time were erroneously attributing negative interactions among prey species to niche partitioning ...
I'm going to leave all undisputed apex predators (grizzlys, cougars, orcas etc.) and then remove all the rest. If you want to add new entries, find a source somewhere (outside wikipedia, as it's not a verifiable source) that states explicitly the animal is in fact an apex predator (or a superpredator).
Officials pulled one of the fish from a river in August. Now they’ve removed about 20.
Raccoons (Procyon lotor) and skunks (Mephitis mephitis) are mesopredators.Here they share cat food in a suburban backyard.. The mesopredator release hypothesis is an ecological theory used to describe the interrelated population dynamics between apex predators and mesopredators within an ecosystem, such that a collapsing population of the former results in dramatically increased populations of ...