What Happens When Predators Disappear?

A world without predators. It sounds like a safer, happier world, but come on, this is SCIENCE…

LEARN MORE
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To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:
- Ecosystem: a biological community of interacting organisms and their physical environment.
- Herbivore: an animal that feeds on plants.
- Top predator: a predator without natural predators of its own.
- Trophic cascade: an ecological phenomenon triggered by the addition or removal of top predators.

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CREDITS
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Cameron Duke | Script Writer, Narrator and Director
Arcadi Garcia i Rius | Storyboard Artist
Sarah Berman | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation
Nathaniel Schroeder | Music

MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC

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Lizah van der Aart • Sarah Berman • Cameron Duke
Arcadi Garcia i Rius • David Goldenberg • Melissa Hayes
Alex Reich • Henry Reich • Peter Reich
Ever Salazar • Leonardo Souza • Kate Yoshida

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[milancz]

Predators protect the trees from the evil herbivores!!

[hobosorcerer]

The frog at the beginning pretending to not be a predator is nice.

[ToonedMinecraft]

Frog dancing with the herbivores: "I hope no one realises I'm an obligate carnivore..."

[ericbrass]

I immediately thought about the "How wolves change rivers" documentary. Fascinating stuff!

[kimmopirkkala]

Humans have actually done this globally in very many areas. Large top predators have been erased in most of the areas where we live in.

[tj]

Ironically, with dwindling resources, some herbivores will turn into opportunistic carnivores. Meaning that they will eat meat for the sake of survival. Usually, they'll eat animals already dead, smaller creatures, or each other.

[MarcTelang]

What if you continue the experiment? Would all the animals on the island die out? Or would enough die out for the plants to regrow, and it would be stable again?

[Amonimus]

I like how 2:56 is a very happy image in the context of population control.

[MorganHJackson]

A similar ish thing has happened to Australia. We have no large apex predators, meaning that kangaroos are often in pest proportions. It's also allowed non-natives to run wild, eating too many of the wrong plants. There are visible differences in plant cover between the two sides of dingo fences.

[fowlfables]

Shark populations are especially crashing due to finning. Shark fins belong on sharks, not in soup.

[kylevansteelandt]

As a passionate animal lover, it's something I find accurately true. It's almost 2025 and people are still against predators; thinking they are scary killers and nothing else. That how all humans portray them for decades, and still never learn nor understand.

[Stratelier]

I was waiting for them to reference Yellowstone Park.

I was not disappointed.

[MasterPower-jdmu]

Just because there are no predators doesn't always mean these animals are friendly. They can still attack you when provoked.

[thevenator]

Pretty cool how that massive crazy-shaped lake was created just from partially blocking one part of the thin river.

[Barakon]

0:03 frogs are predators though, they mostly eat insects (which still count btw) but won’t hesitate to eat anything they can fit in their little gullets.

I fucking bet an African bullfrog ate a lovebird once.

[bignelly]

“Herbivores dancing in the thumbnail”
Frogs are some of the most ravenous carnivores I’ve seen. Bullfrogs especially will eat anything that can fit in that front half of there body they call a mouth.

[Pope]

"It turns out that predators aren't preventing that perfect utopia; instead, they're a huge part of maintaining it"

[dovahkiin]

Remember guys; The predators, unlike what is shown in stories and fables, are not villains, without heroes of a poorly told story.

[Parapresdokian]

1:27 correct me if I'm wrong. How 35× has larger bar than 50× on the graph?

[tealkerberus]

You missed Macquarie Island. It's a good one - what happens when you take all the cats off a remote island but leave the rabbits, and then what happens when you remove the rabbits too. The indigenous sea birds have their island to themselves now.