Bear Grylls just killed a Boa!!

[DutchHerp]

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.

Exactly what I was gonna say. I don't value other animals' lives over others. It's just that apex predators have such a huge important to the health of the ecosystem that the death of an apex predator will probably affect their environment more than the death of a mesopredator.

I think apex predators should be left alone.