Rise Of The Mesopredator🎵 (ft. @sciencewithtom )

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Thanks to humans, old school apex predators are struggling to hold onto their perch at the top of the food chain. And now a new class of adaptable mesopredators are remaking the ecosystems they take over.

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LEARN MORE
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To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:
- Food Web: the feeding relationships between animals that determine how energy and nutrients are spread throughout an ecosystem.
- Trophic Level: a hierarchical level in an ecosystem made up of organisms that share the same function in the food web.
- Apex predator: the animals at the top trophic level that feed on animals and organisms below them.
- Mesopredator: a member of a mid-ranking trophic level that preys on animals and organisms in lower trophic levels and occasionally gets eat by apex predators.
- Mesopredator Release: an ecological phenomenon in which mesopredators rapidly grow in population once apex predators are removed from an ecosystem.
- Trophic Cascade: a series of dramatic changes in an ecosystem often triggered by mesopredator release.

CREDITS
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Script Writer: Tom McFadden
Script Editor: David Goldenberg
Video Illustrator: Qingyang Chen
Video Director: David Goldenberg, Emily Elert
Video Narrator: Emily Elert, Tom McFadden
With Contributions From: Henry Reich, Alex Reich, Kate Yoshida, Ever Salazar, Emily Elert, Peter Reich
Music by: Nathaniel Schroeder

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REFERENCES
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McInturff, Alex. (2018). Personal Communication. Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at University of California, Berkeley.

Рекомендации по теме

Комментарии

The Ballad of The Apex Predators:

It was good to be king
We were trophic elite
Prey ate the plants
And we ate their meat
Then this little ape called “Man”
Wanted to compete

And as the humans spread
And invaded globally
They broke up our habitats
And killed us all - rather fast
They were shooting us for sport
Or for eating sheep

Lions, lynx, and sea eagles
Alphas worldwide
Met precipitous decline
Leopards, wolves, and hammer-heads
Were persecuted
Leaving disarray behind

Not to throw shade, but this
Trophic downgrade
Will simply open up space for some lesser-grade
So-called hunters

The Mesopredator Rap:

Skunk… raccoon... mahi mahi… mongoose
Catshark… dogfish… jackal… large squid

Food chain food chain food chain food chain food chain (woof)

Apex out - we the new thing (youth)
And we don’t need a huge range (ooo)
As you get killed by the humans (ooof)
Mesopredators gonna move in (truth)

Say goodbye to our old foes. (ooo)
Yeah what a relief! (phew)
No competition or hunting. (coo)
So mesopredators are released! (ooo)

When farmers hunt down lions (shoot)
Just to protect livestock (moo)
Nobody left to eat baboons (baboon)
Who start eating all the crops! (true)

Sharks getting killed for their fins? (stew)
Boomtime for the rays and skates (ooo)
But they eat all the bivalves (food)
Humans left with an empty plate (poof)

Fence out all the dingoes? (shoo)
Foxes rise in a blink (ooh)
And as the fox keeps hunting (ooh)
Little mammals go extinct (potoroo)

But we’re not just thriving (coup)
Due to the apex crash (boom)
Living near humans is rich (ooh)
We’re sitting here eating up trash (and rats!)

Food chain food chain food chain food chain food chain (woof)
Trophic cascades happen quick with apex gone and we’re turned loose
We can thrive by human side, rise up the food chain ‘til we rule

The Wolf Reintroduction Song:

In Yellowstone, which had been our home
We used to eat up coyotes
But as we were killed, coyotes were thrilled
It was a mouse and rabbit feast!

But that hurt the hawks, badgers, and fox
Who had relied on them for meat
But since we’ve returned, they’re starting to learn
That we can help other specieeees

MinuteEarth

Well I don’t want a giant squid in my backyard either

shadowplays

0:21
What Mufasa said while falling to his death

demonkittyanimations

This seems like an anime plot explained in song

brendanthewolf

3:28 Rabbits and Small Rodents: "We're saved"
Hawks, Badgers and Fox: "Remember us"

DynoKea

Song replays
Ballad of the apex predators: 0:21
The meso predator rap : 1:41
The wolf reintroduction song : 3:03
A three pack cost a like
One alone is free
Two is also free

basilisk

I'm still waiting for the day that a cthulu sized lobster will rise from the depths and become the apex predator of the world.

JustinY.

Unfortunately the wolves that were hunted out of Yellowstone went extinct so the wolves introduced to replace them was not the same. The wolves in Yellowstone now are significantly larger. Thankfully they seem to be doing a good job replacing the old wolf species.

samtibbitts

i MUST SAVE MY FAMILY FROM THE SHARK POACHERS
SHARK FAMILY HERE I COME

shxrks

Another thing you didn't mention is that mesopredators generally can't hunt the large herbivores, like deer, which can run amok and eat up all the foliage, which then hurts everything else in the food web. Apex predators are even more important!

DontMockMySmock

If we killed the metapreditors, bunnies will rule the world

wolflover

Club alpha:
It was good to be king we were trophicily

redpotanimations

Humans: killing all Apex predators

Mesopredators: allow us to introduce ourselves

obsidian

Love this! My nephew loves ScienceWithTom, I'm sending him this. While not typical Minute Earth style, this is exactly the kind of video the adult audience of this channel can share with their nieces, nephews, kids, little siblings. Perfect opportunity for Minute Earthers to share their love of science with the young people in their lives. Good job guys.

physicsgirl