Summary Of Scared To Death
Landscape of Fear In “Scared to Death” by Ed Yong, he discusses how the addition of one predator can cause a cascade effect on the remaining prey in the ecosystem. The grey wolf was originally eradicated in the Yellowstone Park in order to increase quality of life for the elk. The elk was the natural prey of the wolf, and faced dwindling populations due to its presence. Following the elimination of the removal of the wolves, the elk population flourished, reaching numbers as high as 19,000. This eventually turned out to not be 100% good news for the park, as the elk greatly diminished the park’s trees.
As Yong mentions, the populations of the predator and prey must be stable in order for an ecosystem to fully prosper. He considers this