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Running head: THE UNKNOWN BENEFITS OF NATURAL PREDATORS

The Unknown Benefits of Natural Predators

Phillip Aaron Morrison
Western Kentucky University

The Unknown Benefits of Natural Predators

Abstract
This paper is going to show how natural predators have many unknown effects on the
ecosystems that they are in. This paper will also show how humans have had a major negative
impacts on ecosystems and natural predators in them to the point of near extinction in some
cases. With many peer reviewed sources this paper will prove and back up a plan of action with
information on issues that humans cause and ideas as to what can solve most of these issues.
Throughout this piece, ideas and concepts like rewilding the Earth will give factual information
that shows how Earth is becoming damaged beyond repair from urbanization and the massive
benefits that natural predators and megafauna can bring to an ecosystem.
Keywords: rewilding, megafauna, trophic cascades, and Gaia hypothesis.

The Unknown Benefits of Natural Predators

The Unknown Benefits of Natural Predators
Since the dawn of man, the struggle of man versus nature has continued as humans
climbed their way to becoming apex predators and building societies and tribes in the territories
they controlled, however as the age old struggle has continued humans have started destroying
nature almost beyond repair. Urbanization and the need for mass produced food has started
destroying many ecosystems. This is showing many negative effects in ecosystems and the
biosphere. A few examples are how humans almost eradicated bees, bison, bald eagles, and
more. Humans also destroy ecosystems through things like oil spills, overfishing, deforestation,
and more. This paper will show how rewilding can save the planet in a quicker and more natural
way than our current efforts to restore ecosystems. This paper will prove that point by showing
how natural predators can healthily interact with ecosystems, how humans across the world have
had major negative impacts on most the ecosystems that they have interacted with and how
animals are interacting and coping with the current environment damaged by humans, and what
people need to do to fix the issues we caused.
Many natural predators are little known ecosystem engineers and have major
impacts on the ecosystem other than just hunting, for example wolves hunt causing deer to avoid
certain areas, wolves leave carrion for scavenger animals to eat, and they also kill animals that
hurt ecosystems like coyotes. The true effect that wolves have on the environment can be seen
when they were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park after years of being absent. Before
wolves were reintroduced deer were running rampant around the park because they had no
natural predators. The deer would sharpen their antlers on trees and weaken the trees, the deer
would also eat the grass and greenery which would make the park look barren due to the massive
population and herds of deer. George Monbiot has spoken at a TED conference about the

The Unknown Benefits of Natural Predators

reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park. He talked about how once they
reintroduced the wolves back into the park they began by killing deer, but more importantly
they changed the deers behavior. The deer would start to avoid parts of Yellowstone where they
could be easily trapped and killed and these parts began to regenerate (Monbiot 2013). After
they regenerated, the additional plant life brought more birds, bugs, mice, weasels, and beavers.
This process of how reintroducing animals into an area that causes it to become a booming
interconnected ecosystem is known as rewilding. Rewilding is one of the ways that humans can
help save this planet because as the wolves demonstrated in Yellowstone National Park, natural
predators can hunt in better ways than humans can. They hunt better in respect to the ecosystem,
they hunt better because they have a reason to hunt and a drive to come back to their den with
food for the pack unlike humans. Smith, Peterson, and Huston also did research on Yellowstone
National Park and the reintroduction of wolves to its ecosystem. They showed the beginning
population of gray wolves rescued from Canada to be only thirty one wolves in 1995 and 1996
(Smith, Peterson, and Huston 2015). They also stated that in the first 7 years wolves have
recolonized the 8991-square-kilometer (km2) park and several adjacent portions of the 72,800
km2 greater Yellowstone ecosystem (GYE), (Smith, Peterson, and Huston 2015). This
information shows that the wolves that were reintroduced in such small numbers covered many
square kilometers in a very short amount of time, which means that wolves can spread out
quickly and begin fixing an ecosystem in just a matter of a few short years. If humans were to
attempt to do the same thing the wolves did, by spreading out over the land and hunting it
wouldve taken years to even put a small dent in the deer population. The benefits of rewilding
does not just stop at natural predators.

The Unknown Benefits of Natural Predators

Many other animals that have been reintroduced into ecosystems have had widespread
positive effects on their own personal ecosystems and even the biosphere. Primmers study on
rewilding used beavers in Scotland as an example of how animals other than wolves and other
natural predators can benefit an ecosystem. Primmer said In 2009 beavers were reintroduced
into river systems in the Knapdale Forest, Argyll, Scotland. The aim of this project was to
establish the viability of the reintroduction of beavers in the UK from scientific, economic and
cultural perspectives. Interestingly the beavers are already a tourist attraction and an asset to the
local economy, (Primmer 2013). Not only did the beavers save the ecosystem by building dams,
creating stronger rivers, and diversifying the ecosystem, but they also brought in tourism because
people wanted to see these beautiful creatures. On top of saving the planet slowly, rewilding can
also benefit humans by facilitating education on the outdoor environment and inspire youth to
take care of the planet for generations to come.
Land animals are not the only animals that rewilding can benefit not only the Earth, but
Humans as well. Whales have some incredible little known effects on the environments that they
live in. Whales are known to feed mostly on krill and shrimp, tiny crustaceans, and migrate to
warmer waters. Monbiot speaks at his conference about how whales actually keep the krill
populations normal. He stated that You take the whales away and the number of krill collapses,
and this happens because the whales natural excrements provide a sort of fertilizer for the
phytoplankton, which feeds the zooplankton, which feeds and increases the amounts of shrimp
and krill in the water (Monbiot 2013). Many people on Earth like eating shrimp and other small
crustaceans. However, some cultures try to kill off the whale populations because they want
more krill and shrimp to flourish, but as the research has shown the opposite happens. There is
less krill because there is less zooplankton and phytoplankton. While shrimp and krill are

The Unknown Benefits of Natural Predators

important to humans and whales, there are even more little known effects that whales can have
on their ecosystem and the biosphere entirely. Monbiot continues to tell his research on how
whales indirectly decrease the amount of carbon from the atmosphere. He states that when
whales breach to the surface from the ocean depths, they kick up phytoplankton back towards the
surface which absorb the carbon in the atmosphere (Monbiot 2013). When whales kick up these
phytoplankton and algae they absorb the carbon in the atmosphere and create fresh oxygen since
algae and phytoplankton are responsible for creating 70-80% of Earths oxygen supply. The
natural predators in the water are definitely as important if not more important than the ones on
land. When people dont know how these natural predators hunt, work, and what they do to help
their own ecosystem and biosphere they are more likely not to care about the predators existence
and therefore kill them. If humans destroy the predators or ecosystems that they live in without
realizing the consequences then humans are doomed in the years to come.
The point of rewilding the Earth around us is to reverse the negative impacts humans
have had across the globe. Humans have obviously won the battle between man vs nature by
this time, but humans are continuing to conquer nature and take away the resources that we can
get our hands on whether its for businesses, to build homes/road/cities, or to take and hold onto.
Out of these human desires caused by greed and the need to build civilization we have created
issues like poaching, urbanization, deforestation, alien species, overfishing, and destroying of
habitats like coral reefs and rainforests. Most if not all species of animals have had to deal with
humans and the issues they cause.
Poaching may not be destroying the country youre living in, but odds are it has before.
When people hear the word poaching, they mostly think of animals like rhinos, elephants, big
cats, and hippos. Most poaching in this day and age does take place in Africa, Asia, and South

The Unknown Benefits of Natural Predators

America because thats where a lot of animals with either valuable hides, tusks, teeth, or heads
reside. In Sebunyas infograph on African poaching it gives information on many of the African
animals. Sebunya states that At current poaching rates, elephants, rhinos, and other iconic
African wildlife may be gone within our lifetime, (Sebunya 2013). This shows how poaching is
devastating African animals to the point of near extinction. With all the good that wolves and
whales do what if its too late to find out all the good for the world that elephants, rhinos, and
other African animals can do for the African environment. However, poaching has also effected
the megafauna of the United States of Americas past. Back during the westward expansion the
American Bison were very prevalent in the Western prairies, but throughout the 1800s the
American Bison were nearly hunted to extinction for sport and relatively small cuts of their meat.
Before this there were other megafauna that actually were hunted to extinction like the Wooly
Mammoth. Watts research on the disappearance of megafauna and other large mammals showed
that the end of the ice age and the warming of the world wasnt to blame for mass extinctions,
however it was humans over hunting animals like the Wooly Mammoth. Watts concluded that
the results show a very strong correlation between the extinction and the history of human
expansion, (Watts 2014). For years the climate change was depicted as being the cause for these
extinctions, but it was actually overhunting on our part and currently we are doing this again to
the animals in Africa, Asia, and South America. Earlier in 2015 there was a dentist that became
infamous for killing a famous lion in a wildlife sanctuary purely for sport. Actions like this
cannot be accepted because of the long term effects that driving an animal to extinction can
yield.
On the opposite side of poaching there is hunting. Hunting is legal in most countries, but
it produces some overlooked issues on the wildlife in the area. While hunting does have some

The Unknown Benefits of Natural Predators

positive benefits like population control of problem species like deer, pumping money into the
environment through the purchase of hunting and fishing licenses, and other benefits (Randhawa
2010) there are many downsides to hunting as well. Many hunters use the meat from the deer,
turkey, and other animals, but they also leave behind them pollution from camping, frightened or
stressed surrounding animals, and issues with the plant life around them. In rare situations
hunters cause forest fires and other major issues by accident. Randhawa also continues to say
Over hunting will cause the decline in the particular animals species, this will effect everything
around it, for example other animals, plants and trees. It directly affects the natural environment
in that it throws off natural predation and population growth of the wildlife. Hunting also
disrupts migration and hibernation of the animals. This is because when animals go to migrate,
they may be killed by hunters and due to fear, they may not hibernate, (Randhawa 2010). This
furthers the point that hunting has very negative effects on the surrounding wild and plant life.
Animals fear for their lives when they hear gunshots and have to flee the area. In Cuitis study on
elk and deer vigilance, frequency of watching for predators while the herd is drinking or eating,
they studied when, where, and why elk and deer populations are more vigilant in certain areas.
They found that increased ATVs and roads pose a major threat to animal populations due to
increased vigilance, lower reproductive success, and stress (Cuiti 2012). This shows that human
interaction and hunting on these lands are destroying the wildlife populations. Many areas now
need to be rewilded because humans have either pushed away the natural predators and
ecosystem engineers in the area due to hunting and human interaction.
Whales are not the only animal that are being overfished and driven to near extinction.
Many types of tuna, crab, lobster, and other sea creatures are becoming endangered due to
constant human interaction and ecosystem destruction. In Daskolovs research on the Black Sea

The Unknown Benefits of Natural Predators

and the trophic cascades that occurred there due to human interaction, he observed that
overfishing was causing many native species and predators in the sea to fade away and die off.
This in turn caused a trophic cascade (a shift in the top species in the ecosystem) from the main
predatory fish to smaller planktivorous fish that heavily breed much like deer. He also observed
another trophic cascade which occurred due to an invasion of an alien (nonnative) species. These
invasive species come in and destroy the current population because the natural ecosystem cant
cope with these new species that are built for different, highly specific environments (Daskolov
2015). This information from Daskolov shows us that human interactions like overfishing and
releasing alien species into environments have the potential to destroy an entire ecosystem.
Another example of the invasion of species is what happened recently in Florida. Florida
was overrun with a large breed of snails that would eat every plant in sight and could breed and
multiply itself very rapidly. This species was brought in due to someone thinking that they would
make a cool snail pet while vacationing in South America, and the snails were simply released
when the person decided they were done with the pet. This was particularly damaging on
Floridas plant life and wildlife because the native species couldnt keep up with this highly
specialized nonnative species. McKinneys research in the article Urbanization, Biodiversity,
and Conservation spoke of the challenges the ecosystems had to face with regards to coping
with human interaction and McKinney said Another great conservation challenge of urban
growth is that it replaces the native species that are lost with widespread weedy nonnative
species. This replacement constitutes the process of biotic homogenization that threatens to
reduce the biological uniqueness of local ecosystems (McKinney 2002). This form of human
interaction on the environment has horrifying consequences and is already considered a felony to
the American government, however this doesnt stop people unfortunately. Many people do not

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The Unknown Benefits of Natural Predators

know the consequences and the reason behind the law and when they want a large snail as a
pet theyll just pick it up and smuggle it back, but if people knew what they were actually
doing and what they could cause to the world then they would be less likely to want this alien
species as a pet back home.
People are spreading throughout the Earth. Humans are discovering new locations
through satellites and GPS almost regularly. With this spread of humans and information, there is
also the spread of society and towns/cities/megalopolises. This is called urbanization and is very
harmful to the species that already inhabit the area. Humans are technically an Alien species to
everywhere except Africa. Scientifically speaking, humans originated in Africa and spread out
from there. This means that we have evolved to deal with elephants, hippopotami, lions, and
other megafauna. Whenever creatures like the dodo, Tasmanian tiger, and many other animals
come into contact with the first humans they stand no chance against humans specialized skill
sets for hunting and gathering. The same thing can be said about building society and cities
wherever we go, the animals around us are not built to cope with this. Watts came up with the
results in his study on whether climate change was really to blame for the extinction of certain
species of animals. Watts stated that The results show a very strong correlation between the
extinction and the history of human expansion. This is an unfortunate correlation because lost
many species due to overhunting (Watts 2014). Watts continued to show the results of the study
by saying The results also draw a straight line from the prehistoric extinction of large animals
via the historical regional or global extermination due to hunting (American bison, European
bison, quagga, Eurasian wild horse or tarpan, and many others) to the current critical situation for
a considerable number of large animals as a result of poaching and hunting, (Watts 2014).

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The Unknown Benefits of Natural Predators

Urbanization is to blame for these issues. If people didnt run every species into the ground as
they spread out and settled down then we would still have these species and more today.
McKinney adds to this information by stating The first species to disappear in the
proximity of humans are usually large mammals, especially predators, because they are actively
persecuted, relatively rare, and have low reproductive rates. Thus, cougars, bison, and elk were
among the first to disappear after European settlement began (McKinney 2002). This proves
that humans are the cause for most extinctions in the environments that they have occupied since
their rise to becoming an apex predator and the mass spreading and migration of the human
species. However, its not just overhunting and urbanization that pose major risks to these
species. The issues that are causing extinctions like these are also caused by many types of
habitat destruction like deforestation and pollution. Deforestation kills many species of birds,
primates, bears, and many other types of woodland and rainforest creatures. On the other hand,
pollution affects many species worldwide. Pollution in the form of trash can cause animals to
choke, suffocate by getting something lodged in their throat/nose/around their neck, or affect the
environment they are in. Pollution like oil spills and forest fires have and will destroy vast and
complex ecosystems that have been there for years. In recent years there have been many oil
spills like the infamous BP oil spill that destroyed the ecosystem in the Gulf of Mexico. While
many forest fires have happened in National Parks and areas of large forests. Forest fires can also
destroy an ecosystem and make native species fear the ecosystem they are in. Many forest fires
are man-made, however some do happen due to natural processes like droughts. Droughts, while
are considered a natural process, there is something to be said about global warming and
greenhouse gasses that are affecting the atmosphere which may cause massive droughts like the
one affecting California and parts of western Northern America currently.

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The Unknown Benefits of Natural Predators

Rewilding can fix many of these man made issues. However, the question at hand is how
do humans start to rewild the world around us? The steps humans should start taking towards
fixing these issues are very simple. We should first start to educate more people about natural
predators and how they help the environment. Many people fear wolves, bears, and other natural
predators because theyve seen many forms of media depicting them as raging killer animals
instead of ecosystem engineers as George Monbiot referred to them as in his TED Talk. If
humans can change their opinion of these magnificent animals through slow processes like PSAs
on these animals, more education about local natural predators and their importance in the school
systems, and other forms of education and positive human interactions with these beautiful
creatures then people would be more inclined to keep them around them instead of fearing these
animals and not understanding them. All fear has roots in something that is unknown to a person,
so if we educate these people on what natural predators do for the ecosystem and the biosphere
then we can change the public opinion and learn to love these animals we know so much but so
little about.
The next step to creating a better planet and environment for the Earth is to create more
wildlife sanctuaries and set aside more land just for animals to do what animals do. This would
help maintain the Earth as a living interconnected unit as Gaia theory suggests the Earth is
(Monbiot 2013). If many societies make more laws prohibiting human interaction in certain areas
in order to maintain the natural wildlife there it would reverse many of the adverse effects
humans have already had on the environment.
Rewilding the Earth is the solution humans need to fix the constant involvement we have
had with the Earth since the Stone Age. The research provided in this paper shows the benefits of
rewilding the Earth and they dont just stop there. Many people go to zoos in this modern day

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The Unknown Benefits of Natural Predators

because it is exciting to see these magnificent creatures that have nearly exited our life. If
humans rewild the world in its current state we would have a zoo in our backyard and would
truly see the full potential and beauty that this planet has to offer. Rewilding the world will fix
the lack of natural predators in the environment, it will fix the adverse effects human have caused
and how the animals cope with humans, and following these steps to rewild the world will
change the world around us so we can uncover the full potential that humans have been missing
out on since we first walked this beautiful Earth.

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The Unknown Benefits of Natural Predators

Works Cited
Ciuti, S., Simi, S., Pitt, J., Boyce, M., Northrup, J., Muhly, T., & Musiani, M. (2012, November
28). Effects of Humans on Behaviour of Wildlife Exceed Those of Natural Predators in a
Landscape of Fear. Retrieved October 21, 2015.
Daskalov, G., Grishin, A., Rodionov, S., & Mihneva, V. (2007, April 25). Trophic cascades
triggered by overfishing reveal possible mechanisms of ecosystem regime shifts.
Retrieved October 21, 2015.
McKinney, M. (2002, October 10). Urbanization, Biodiversity, and Conservation. Retrieved
October 21, 2015.
Monbiot, G. (2013, September 9). George Monbiot: For more wonder, rewild the world.
Retrieved October 25, 2015.
Primmer, R. (2013, December 9). Benefits of Rewilding. Retrieved October 25, 2015.
Randhawa, K. (2010, December 11). Hunting: Effects on the Environment. Retrieved October
25, 2015.
Sebunya, K. (2013, August 14). Africa's Poaching Crisis. Retrieved October 25, 2015.
Smith, D., Peterson, R., & Huston, D. (2015, October 1). Yellowstone after Wolves. Retrieved
October 21, 2015.
Watts, A. (2014, June 4). Study: Climate change not to blame for the disappearance of large
mammals. Retrieved October 25, 2015.