Predators and prey
In a healthy, balanced The living organisms in a particular area, together with the non-living components of the environment. the numbers of An animal that hunts, kills and eats other animals for food. and Organisms that predators kill for food. remain fairly constant. They can go up and down during each year but generally over the years, these increases and decreases remain fairly constant.
If numbers of either predators or prey increase or decrease it could be due to a change in the Non-living elements of an ecosystem, such as climate, temperature, water, and soil type. factors, like water or sunlight, or Living elements of an ecosystem, such as plants and animals. factors, like a new predator or Microorganism that causes disease.. This would result in a less healthy, balanced ecosystem.
Predator-prey cycles
The numbers of predators and prey for certain ecosystems such as the Canadian Lynx (wild cat) and hare have been recorded over many years and found to change in a regular cycle. A similar example is shown in the graph below and shows characteristic repeating patterns called predator-prey cycles.
The graph shows that there is almost always more prey than predators. It also shows the following patterns:
- the number of predators increases because there is more prey
- the number of prey reduces because there are more predators
- the number of predators reduces because there is less prey