Timeline for answer to If prey and predator switched places how would this shape the ecosystem? by Theik
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
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| Jun 16, 2020 at 11:03 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
Commonmark migration
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| Jan 10, 2020 at 16:58 | comment | added | Nathan Hawks | @Theik Grass has effectively zero calories. It's a universal truth with predators: they're built in such a way that cannot be sustained without massive caloric intake. | |
| Jan 10, 2020 at 7:07 | comment | added | Theik | @Luaan Then the lion climbs into a tree and waits it out. You are vastly overestimating the danger antelopes pose to a lion and taking massive casualties to kill a single lion is going to be far more inefficient than scavenging the remains of all the ex-herbivores that are dropping left and right. | |
| Jan 10, 2020 at 7:06 | comment | added | Theik | @NathanHawks Is it though? If it doesn't have to chase prey and most of the animals that were eating grass are suddenly carnivores, it seems to be that vegetation will be available in abundance. And there are plenty of big herbivores that are larger than lions, so a lion that eats grass and lazes around for the rest of the day should most likely be okay in terms of calories, if it can actually digest the food. | |
| Jan 10, 2020 at 0:10 | comment | added | Nathan Hawks | Gotta think about body size and calories. That lion is going to be gaunt very quickly. | |
| Jan 9, 2020 at 14:06 | comment | added | Luaan | Sure, but a lion cannot actually attack a bunch of antellopes and win. You'd be surprised how gruesome the results can be for a predator when he attacks a group of "prey" and misjudges the attack. And imagine that you're the lion, and the antellopes just keep coming - and as soon as you try to attack them, they run away. You can't just ignore them, but every feint makes you more and more exhausted. Humans hunted this way for ages, long before we had any weapons comparable to lion's - or indeed, those of antellopes. | |
| Jan 9, 2020 at 14:01 | comment | added | Theik | @Luaan Op seems to suggest that only dietary needs change, and the rest "will change over time". (Evolution? More magic? No idea). Either way, I wouldn't give a herd of antelopes a very good chance of nibbling a lion to death. Most of those animals will have to survive as scavengers first, if they survive at all. A herbivore lion doesn't need to outsprint those antelopes, it just has to kill them. | |
| Jan 9, 2020 at 13:57 | comment | added | Luaan | Also, I wouldn't be so optimistic about hunters like the lion. Lions (and many other cats) rely on surprise - they're great sprinters, but rubbish at endurance. You could probably have antellopes hunting lions if you gave them the right instincts - herd and flight instincts aren't very useful, but if antellopes suddenly started behaving like wolves, they would probably be reasonably effective against the "old" carnivores (they wouldn't be good against "old" prey animals, but those are no longer prey anyway, so...). It really depends on what exactly the switch does. | |
| Jan 9, 2020 at 13:49 | comment | added | Theik | @Luaan True, I've edited a bit to fix that wording. | |
| Jan 9, 2020 at 13:49 | history | edited | Theik | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Jan 9, 2020 at 13:46 | comment | added | Luaan | "to prevent ex-carnivores from instantly going instinct because they keep trying to eat meat they can't digest" (you probably meant "extinct") Herbivores can digest meat just fine. It's the other way around that's hard (for obvious reasons, and with obvious exceptions e.g. fruit, nuts etc.). Most herbivores will happily eat meat or eggs when presented with the opportunity (e.g. deer routinelly eat the younglings/eggs when a bird nest falls to the ground). They just suck at hunting :) | |
| Jan 9, 2020 at 12:59 | comment | added | Theik | @Thomas Hippos are one of the few herbivores I honestly give a good chance of surviving. They'll easily kill most of the stuff in the lakes they live in, and they've got a pretty good chance of taking over from crocodiles as ambush predators near watering holes, they can run pretty fast if they have to, are already adept at lurking underwater, etc. They'll most likely still be in trouble though eventually because of all the other ex-herbivores going extinct and ex-predators being too few to provide enough food. | |
| Jan 9, 2020 at 12:41 | comment | added | Thomas | A hippo might be dangerous because it can kill most things rather easily, but if it has to kill for food rather than defense it needs to hunt or capture their prey, first, which will be a huge problem. | |
| Jan 9, 2020 at 10:28 | history | edited | Theik | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Jan 9, 2020 at 10:09 | comment | added | Spoki0 - Reinstate Monica | The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog is a joke after all, a bunny suddenly being carnivorous doesn't make it all that dangerous. | |
| Jan 9, 2020 at 9:47 | history | answered | Theik | CC BY-SA 4.0 |