Is predation that cruel?

Whenever you think of predation the image that comes to your mind is like a cheetah like cruel animal chasing a beautiful antelope like animal, it really looks cruel. You might have prayed for the prey while watching such scenes on Discovery like channels. But have you ever imagined what a world without predators will look like.

You may think a world without predator is quite and peaceful, where there is no kill or murder is attempted, peaceful and peace-loving animals are grazing everywhere.

But nothing like the above(as mentioned in the paragraph) will be seen in a world devoid of predators. Yah, it sounds unusual but predators maintain a great balance in nature. But, how those cruel can be purposeful? Here is how.

You have to keep in mind that animals are heterotrophs i.e. they feed on others to fulfill their need of body. That simply means every single animal is a predator, you, me, that beautiful peace loving antelope, a small lovebird and obviously that cruel looking cheetah, are all predators, as they predates over some other organism for their own survival. You and me predates over plant, animals, seeds and everything that’s why we are termed as omnivores. That peace loving antelope predates over herbs and shrubs in grazing area, the cute birds predates for seeds (a plant embryo), and as they are directly dependent on plant are termed as herbivores. That cruel cheetah is a carnivore as it is not directly dependent on plants, but it is only the cheetah that gets all the blame for predation, whereas everybody is predating to continue themselves sometime spectacularly.

As I said earlier that predators not only predate to satisfy their needs they also create an ecological balance by being nature’s way for transferring energy transfer to some other predator. They (predators) also appear as checkpoints for abundant growth for the prey species, which is a crucial condition for ecological equilibrium.

Now think of a peaceful community of antelope grazing without worrying about the cheetahs, as there is none. In that case antelopes will increase in population enormously which in turn will affect the natural vegetative adversely, and that will cause a real threat over all the species. As all animals are heterotrophs they all are absolutely dependent on the plants because they are the members able to utilize the solar energy and in turn sustain the whole biosphere.

Now question may arise, what if predators (generally carnivores), who checks the prey population, override the prey population. Well, that’s not possible, because, predators need to increase their population size in order to override the prey, which is not supported by energy transferring mechanism of nature. This mechanism ensures passage of only a limited amount of energy to the predator, which in turn doesn’t allow the predator population to increase enormously. This mechanism ensures coexistence of both predator and prey on the scene.

Above are the reasons for the reintroduction of one of the most cruel predators, the wolf in Yellowstone national park in the late 1990s. and eventually that bring back flowers on the valley a long after.

No element in nature is added without any cause, and even the most cruel element is potent to bring back life.