Image examples of predation?

Question

I'm doing a paper for Biology II on predation. It's an explanatory paper focusing on what happens when predation goes wrong, i.e. over population resulting in famine, etc. So I need a visual example that isn't just your standard cheetah chasing down an antelope. Any ideas? Specific graph or photo links are what I'm looking for.

Answer 1

Well, if you are just looking for interesting pictures and examples, I'm sure there are plenty around.

Take Easter Island. It is sometimes cited as an example of total ecological collapse. In 1722, when the island was discovered, it was reported that there were two to three thousand people living there self-sufficiently. But the settlers had brought rats with them which feasted on the seeds of the trees and had no natural enemies. Soon all the trees were gone, and without wood the civilization collapsed to a hundred or so natives. The rats weren't to happy about it either. The best thing about this example is it lets you put pictures of Moai (those big stone heads - there some in link 1) in your paper. ( :

One of the longest running studies of predation, of course, is the ongoing on in Isle Royale National Park which has been going on for 46 or so years now. The island serves as an interesting example because it is both relatively isolated population-wise, but also pretty accessible for biologists. At first, it was thought that the wolf population would pretty easily wipe out all the moose on the island, but instead some interesting self-limiting effects have been going on. There are also lots of good pictures and information available (link 2).

Australia has had a nightmare preserving their local ecology. Rabbits unwittingly released into the wild bred like... well, rabbits. They had no predators to speak of, and began doing massive damage to local plant-life and even crowding out other species present as well. Some well-meaning Austrialians thought to solve the problem by introducing a predator to rabbits - the cat. Cats, however, are not so choosy, and though they cut into the rabbit population, they also happily chowed down on much of the native stuff too. Chaos! Later a virus was introduced to try and wipe out the rabbits (which ended up spreading to pet populations... oops), but similar measures for cats is deemed too dangerous. Good article in link 3, below.

Hope that all helps! Good luck with your paper!