Question

1; why is death by predators are more natural or "right" then death by starvation? How does one determine when an ecosytem is in balance ? Do predators really kill only the old and sick prey? what evidence is there for this statement?

2' What is your opinion of the balance of nature hypothesis?

Answer 1

1. Starvation would mean lack of food availability in the ecosystem, which symbolizes non balanced ecosystem. Death by predators would mean availability of food for the higher-food-chain animals.

It would also ensure that the balance is maintained in the ecosystem as the herbivores would survive by eating plants and the carnivores by eating the herbivores.

Ecosystem is balanced when the biotic and non-biotic stay in harmony, which means there is enough food for all the species in the ecosystem be it herbivores, carnivores and aquatic.

No it would not be completely right to conclude that predators kill only the old and sick prey, primarily because predators target the easiest prey and also ensures that minimal energy is required to do so.

It would not be unfair to say the old and sick prey may not even provide necessary substance to the predator or to others it may be feeding. As a result of this we find many young preys being killed while some of the old and sick prey survive in the ecosystem which brings us to our conclusion.

2. Balance of nature hypothesis basically means balanced number of species spread geographically, which means the count of predators and preys are even in number.

For example, more the number of worms more the number of birds will be in particular area because birds feed on worms.

Balance of nature would also ensure that the food chain remains in equilibrium.

Imbalanced of nature would mean growth in the number of a particular species in a geographical area which would never be a healthy condition for the environment.

If the imbalanced is not controlled we will have to start hunting down the species when they overgrow in their number in a particular geographical area which is never a good scenario.