![]() ![]() Large predators are usually carnivores, but mesopredators are often omnivores and can cause significant plant and crop damage. Human intervention cannot easily replace the role of apex predators, in part because the constant fear of predation alters not only populations but behavior of mesopredators. The economic cost of controlling mesopredators may be very high, and sometimes could be accomplished more effectively at less cost by returning apex predators to the ecosystem. Primary or apex predators can actually benefit prey populations by suppressing smaller predators, and failure to consider this mechanism has triggered collapses of entire ecosystems.Ĭascading negative effects of surging mesopredator populations have been documented for birds, sea turtles, lizards, rodents, marsupials, rabbits, fish, scallops, insects and ungulates. In some places that has led to an explosion in the populations of rays, which in turn caused the collapse of a bay scallop fishery and both ecological an economic losses. Sharks, for instance, are in serious decline due to overfishing. The problems are not confined to terrestrial ecosystems. ![]() "Mesopredators occur at higher densities than apex predators and exhibit greater resiliency to control efforts." "The economic impacts of mesopredators should be expected to exceed those of apex predators in any scenario in which mesopredators contribute to the same or to new conflict with humans," the researchers wrote in their report. The coyotes attack pronghorn antelope and domestic sheep, and attempts to control them have been hugely expensive, costing hundreds of millions of dollars. However, that has led to a huge surge in the number of coyotes, a "mesopredator" once kept in check by the wolves. The elimination of wolves is often favored by ranchers, for instance, who fear attacks on their livestock. We have to be more careful about taking what appears to be the easy solution." "Most important to understand is that these issues are complex, the issue is not as simple as getting rid of wolves or lions and thinking you've solved some problem. "I've done a lot of work on wildlife in Africa, and people everywhere are asking some of the same questions, what do we do?" said Clinton Epps, an assistant professor at OSU who is studying the interactions between humans and wildlife. ![]()
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