Ecosystems Collapsing

Who: The Apex predators and Mesopredator's.

What: The decline of apex predators( large predators that don't have predator's therefore they are at the top of the food chain ex: sharks, lions, wolves.) is causing a huge uproar in the ecosystems. Mesopredators ( or the medium sized predators such as skunks, snakes and cats) are increasing dramatically in their given ecosystem, therefore "causing major economic and ecological disruptions."

When: Present day

Where: North America, parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Why: The food chain is un-balanced now, due to the fact that the apex predators have been decimated. Apex predators such as wolves, lions and sharks are decreasing as a result of fishing and hunting. .Because of this, mesopredator population has increased dramatically/ This could be very severe and and could have intense ecological consequences.

My opinion: Based upon the information given in this article, I believe the balance of the ecosystem has plummeted dramatically. It is my belief that problems like these always lead back to humans. They disrupt the lifestyles of animals quite often. However, if humans were to cut back on fishing so much and hunting so much then maybe that would give a chance to the animals to catch up and set the balance of our world right. In addition, humans should know the facts. They should know that by killing apex predators whether it be to protect their livestock from wolves, or just fishing for sharks, we are causing our own down fall by losing crops and plant damage. Its becoming even more hard to stop the prevention of mesopredators release because of the increasing loss of apex predators. Humans need to understand the circle of life better and comprehend how much we ruin the balance of all of animal's ecosystems. Inevitably, we will be in trouble too, when all of the commotion in the animal's ecosystem effects us dramatically. In the circle of life we are all connected and we can't ruin that balance by making ridiculous mistakes such as over fishing and hunting so much. To read the article click here
I also got "circle of life" stuff from the lion king (: