Cats in Nature

The part played by predators such as the cats in maintaining the balance of nature may appear to be a purely destructive one, but in fact that is not the case. They are not simply destroyers, but playa vital part in maintaining a balance. Without them the very species that they hunt would be worse off, paradox though this may be.

Animal food begins with plants. Any given area, with its climate and its soil can support a certain amount of plant life. The plants will grow and, over the years, the type of vegetation may tend to change from grassland to bushy scrub and then to forest, for example - but this does not always happen because plant growth is kept in check by the herbivorous animals that consume the increase in plants.

As a result of the food they eat, the herbivores in their turn thrive, grow and breed. Breeding will tend to increase their numbers and this will mean that there are more mouths to be fed. Soon a situation could easily arise in which the plants are eaten faster than they can grow, so that the whole area becomes a denuded desert. That this does not happen is entirely due to hunters like the wild cats.

Predatory animals must kill off just enough of the herbivores to keep the population steady. This is not achieved by accident. If there are too many hunters their prey will become scarce and some of them may starve. If there are too few hunters then hunting will be easy, and the hunter will breed well, building up their numbers. The balance is a delicate one but, although there are bound to be minor fluctuations in animal populations due to disease and such natural disasters as bush fires and locusts, on the whole a balance is achieved over the years.

The carnivores are thus at the top of a pyramid of life with the more numerous herbivores upon which they feed below them, and the still more numerous plants at the base. Food passes from the bottom to the top. The actual numbers concerned are bound to vary with the conditions, but in one count made in the African grasslands, for every lion that was counted, there were well over a hundred herbivores animals that provide lions with food.