Trophic Cascades or, ain't ecology/evolution great

VimFuego

this is a few months old, but thought I'd share it, fascinating short film on how wolves stabilise river banks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa5OBhXz-Q

digitalscream

Saw that a while back, when I was doing a bit of research before we went to walk with the wolves.

It really does show what an incredible balancing act the ecosystem is, but it also challenges the assumption that deliberately introduced changes to it are inherently bad.

Paul_C

an equally interesting follow up to that story:

http://www.popsci.com/article/science/have-wolves-really-saved-yellowstone

VimFuego

yup, interesting stuff. To me, what it shows is that we don't know how complex eco systems are, but that we're starting to see how little we do know. Fascinating stuff.

chillidoggy

If they're that good at it, I can't understand why the government hasn't reintroduced wolves to prevent all the flooding around the country. Save a fortune on flood defences, it would.

VimFuego

think it's cos the horsey set are afraid they may become prey, and mrs Cameron is full on horsey set and he don't want to upset her.

EDIT: now I think about it, wolves hunting horsey set would make for great tv. You could fit cameras to the wolves, follow them around drones etc. It'd be like a reality TV version of The Hunger Games.