Bear Grylls just killed a Boa!!

[Typical_08]

Just curious as to why to a lot of you, the predator is more important than another animals life? Did the rabbit need to be killed? Did the "lower" reptiles need to be killed? None of it needed to happen. One animals life is not more important than another. Just like no humans life is more important than another. It reminds me of another thread where someone said that he liked all animals except rats, so he thought them dying was great. But how would he feel watching a kingsnake keeper feed a corn or a baby ball python to a large king snake? It seems we are only offended when animals we like are killed. Me, I think instead of snakes and lizards he should be dropped down in Oz and kill feral cats.....kill and eat lots and lots of cats.

It all goes back to a fairly new theory called Mesopredator release hypothesis.

Basically in short it says the decline of top predators in an ecosystem results in increased populations of mesopredators (medium-sized predators) such as raccoons, skunks, snakes, cats, foxes etc.

So, by killing off top predators, because top predators come in small numbers, then you damage the entire ecosystem.

The theory favors a top-down type of population control. Top predators kill off x number of prey, and keep the smaller, but more abundant middle predators under control, as well as the prey animals. But if the top predators start dying off, then middle predators start to gain in numbers, and in turn the prey animal population starts to dwindle. An ecosystem is all about balance. If it becomes unbalanced, then really bad things tend to happen.