why are top predators rare?
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This energy constraint is the fundamental reason top predators are so rare. Many food webs consist of half a dozen or more trophic levels, and by the time you get to the top, there's simply not that much energy left. ... It's their naturally small populations that also leave these predators vulnerable.
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Alot of animals, especially endangered species like tigers and rhinos, are illegally killed for commercial purposes. By keeping them caged, we are actually preventing their extinction. For example, some zoos have breeding programmes for rare animals which could -be targeted by poachers if they are left in the wild.
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As apex predators, they keep prey species under control. This protects the vegetation which in turn maintains the integrity of streams, forests and croplands that provide people around the world with clean air, water, food and financial benefits. When we protect tigers, we protect ourselves.
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Many apex predators are keystone species, but not all. In the film we learn that sea otters are thekeystone species in their food web, but killer whales are the apex predator. Some keystone species, such asAfrican elephants and beavers, are not predators.
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Harpy Eagles, like all top predators, play a very important role in their environment. They are what is known as an umbrella species. Just as several people can stand under a large umbrella and be protected from the rain, so too can many species of wildlife be protected by conserving one species like the Harpy Eagle.
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The great white shark has no known natural predators other than, on very rare occasions, the killer whale. It is arguably the world's largest-known extant macropredatory fish, and is one of the primary predators of marine mammals, up to the size of large baleen whales.
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Many owls are apex predators, meaning that healthy adults have no natural predators in the wild. Some species, such as the burrowing owl, face predation by hawks, badgers and foxes. Adult great horned owls have no natural enemies.
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An apex predator, also known as an alpha predator or top predator, is a predator at the top of a food chain, without natural predators. Apex predators are usually defined in terms of trophic dynamics, meaning that they occupy the highest trophic levels.
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While the species is considered vulnerable, five of its many subpopulations are critically endangered. Another example is the common bottlenose dolphin. It's classified under Least Concern but one of its subspecies is endangered.
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Today, fossas are classified as a vulnerable species, with only about 2,500 in the wild. As one of the island's top predators, fossas do not have natural enemies.
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But in the past 500 years or so, things have started to speed up, and it's got scientists worrying. Today, every single class of megafauna is most at risk from human hunting. ... In the past 250 years, we know that nine megafauna species have either gone extinct completely, or gone extinct in the wild.
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Whales attacking ships are rare — indeed, just a handful of such incidents have ever been documented. ... Given all the contact between boats and whales and people and whales, collisions are relatively rare and attacks are extremely rare.
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Answer 1: Apex predators are important because they operate as a negative feedback on the prey populations, providing ecological stability. ... Essentially, apex predators promote stability in ecosystems by keeping their prey populations balanced correctly.
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Eagles are known as apex predators which means they are at the top of the food chain. They have many types of prey but have no predators of their own....
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Predation often leads to an increase in the population size of the predator and a decrease in the population size of the prey. However, if the size of a prey population gets too small, many of the predators may not have enough food to eat and will die.
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Although it is on top of the food chain and therefore has no predators – except for men –, and counts amongst the largest birds of prey in the world, the harpy eagle is an endangered species due to shrinking forests – it requires an area of about 100 km2 for its habitat.
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The Eskimo Curlew was once very abundant and numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Overhunting and habitat loss have been main reasons for the species decline and have left the species as presumed extinct.