Sentences with phrase «larger predator populations»

Resource subsidies, such as garbage or hunters» carcass dumps, can also support larger predator populations, leading to greater predation pressure.

Not exact matches

He found higher rates of nest predation in small woodlots near human communities because these areas had higher populations of raccoons (Procyon lotor) and squirrels (Sciurus spp.) and few, if any, large predators, such as cougars and bobcats (Lynx rufus).

When the predator population becomes too large, however, the prey population often plummets, leaving too little food for the predators, whose population also then crashes.

Not only do we kill other animals at much higher rates than other predators, but our ability to bring down larger adults can make it very difficult for some prey populations to recover.

And by providing additional refuge from predators, fleshy seaweeds that drift in and out of seagrass beds can maintain larger grazer populations and enhance their positive impact on seagrass.»

The researchers support restoration of large - reef predators as a way to achieve better balance and biodiversity, but they are not optimistic that this would affect the burgeoning lionfish population.

But in the long run, it is unclear if the Arctic ecosystem supports large populations of this voracious predator.

It was large and land - dwelling, and as a top predator made up a far smaller percentage of the population.

The idea is that Passenger Pigeons evolved to live in huge flocks and became dependent on their large flocks, meaning they could not produce enough offspring to survive unless there were billions of them, either for social reasons (they would not breed in small flocks), for predator reasons (they could not satiate predators without huge flocks), or for resource reasons (they could not find adequate food sources in small populations).

Mesopredator Release «In the absence of large, dominant predators,» write Soulé et al., «smaller omnivores and predators undergo population explosions, sometimes becoming four to 10 times more abundant than normal.»

With the rise of large, industrialised cities in Germany, the predator population began to decline, rendering sheepdogs unnecessary.

We argue that the behavioural capacity of feral cats to undertake long - distance excursions to exploit transient hunting opportunities results in significantly higher total predator pressure on prey, and helps to explain how low - density cat populations could have large impacts on small - mammal abundance at landscape scales.

With huge metabolic demands — and large populations before humans started hunting them — great whales are the ocean's ecosystem engineers: they eat many fish and invertebrates, are themselves prey to other predators like killer whales, and distribute nutrients through the water.