Uploaded October 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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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
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REFERENCES
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Estes, James A., et al. “Trophic Downgrading of Planet Earth.” Science, vol. 333, no. 6040, 14 July 2011, pp. 301–306, doi.org/10.1126/science.1205106

Moore, Peter D. “Green and Pleasant Trials.” Nature, vol. 440, no. 7084, Mar. 2006, pp. 613–614, nature.com/articles/440613a, doi.org/10.1038/440613a

Stolzenburg, William. “Ecosystems Unraveling.” Anthropocene, 31 July 2008, anthropocenemagazine.org/conservation/2008/07/ecosystems-unraveling

Terborgh, J. “Ecological Meltdown in Predator-Free Forest Fragments.” Science, vol. 294, no. 5548, 30 Nov. 2001, pp. 1923–1926, doi.org/10.1126/science.1064397