Name_________________________________________________ Date _________

Predator-Prey Relationships
Learn how carnivores and their quarry interactand what happens when humans upset the natural balance. by: Conor Mihell

(Photo by Willard Clay) Who saw more elk at Yellowstone's Mammoth Hot Springs: (a) nineteenth-century explorers, or (b) last summer's motoring tourists? Believe it or not, it's the windshield crowd. Hundreds of years ago, a healthy number of bears and wolves kept the elk population in check. Natural dynamics between predator and prey keep both species in balance, which helps ensure biological diversity across the ecosystem. Here's how it worksand what happens when it doesn't. Natural Forces At Michigan's Isle Royale National Park, wolf and moose populations rise and fall in connected cycles. "When wolf populations are high, they eat a lot of young moose," explains Rolf Peterson, a Michigan Tech University biologist who's been studying predatorprey dynamics on Isle Royale for decades. "But 10 years later, there aren't as many old moose." Wolf numbers then nose-dive, and moose thrive again. This in turn affects the island's vegetation: Balsam firs decline when abundant moose eat young trees before they can reproduce, then rebound when lean moose populations allow them to reach maturity.

Effect Natural negative feedback cycles mean more robust populations of both species. At pristine and remote Isle Royale (where light visitor traffic results in a fairly intact ecosystem), "We're seeing that the wolves tend to remove the weakest moose, leaving the bigger, healthier animals to breed," explains Peterson. Page 1

Name_________________________________________________ Date _________ Human Influence Given plenty of food and scarce predators, any population will grow exponentially. With no wolves left in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park, the elk population has swelled to almost double its natural size. At Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Zion, research has linked high numbers of deer and elk to areas with lots of human activity, where wolves and grizzlies just won't go. The result? Skyrocketing populations. "We end up with 'urban ungulate syndrome,'" says Bill Ripple, an Oregon State University ecologist. "It's as though they are using humans as shields to avoid predators, and they increase in numbers in the process." Effect Mule deer have over-browsed Zion Canyon's cottonwoods, leading to streambank erosion, reducing vegetation, and making the area less habitable for lizards, amphibians, and butterflies. The elk at Rocky Mountain have also damaged aspen and riparian willow communitiesprompting park officials to create a plan to cull the population in 2009.

Predator-Prey Relationships: Questions

DIRECTIONS: Read the article Predator-Prey Relationships and answer the questions below. Page 2

Name_________________________________________________ Date _________ 1. Who saw more elk19th century explorers or motoring tourists? 2. What kept the elk population from growing too large in the past?

3. In Michigan, Isle Royale National Park has a wolf population and a moose population. What affects the size of the moose population?

4. When there are not enough old moose, what happens to the wolf population? 5. What happens to balsam fir when the moose population is large? 6. How do wolves help the moose population? 7. What will happen to any population that has a lot of food and no or not many predators? 8. Why has the elk population in Rocky Mountain National Park doubled its population?

9. Why are there high numbers of deer and elk in Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Zion
National parks in areas with lots of human activity?

10.What have mule deer done at Zion Canyon? What has the effect been on stream banks and certain animals?

Questions for Thought: Some of the answers to the questions can be found in the article. Others might be found in your own head!!! 1. Look at the graph on the Isle Royale Population Cycles. What happened to the wolf population between 1975 and 1985?

2. What happened to the moose population at the same time?

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Name_________________________________________________ Date _________ 3. When was the moose population at its highest? How does that compare with the wolf population at the same time?

4. At what numbers (for both wolf and moose) do the two populations seem to be in balance?

5. White-tailed deer are a problem in the Philadelphia area, and for most of the state of Pennsylvania. They carry Lyme disease, destroy peoples plants, and are eating a large number of young oak trees in forests throughout the state. Why do you think the deer population is so large? What do you think can be done about it?

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