What happens when a predator enters an ecosystem with little resistance?
The threat had always been there, with Ned, but somehow we believed we could do it, so we chugged along. We had small and medium sized predators that preyed on the smaller and weaker beasts, but that's natural in any ecosystem.
We had disagreements, flag wars, crazy forks, e.t.c., but somehow have been able to carry on evolving - with some beasts going into extinction and new beasts being introduced.
We were on the way to achieving ecosystem symbiosis across the board when it suddenly happened.
NEW PREDATOR JUST IN
Large, seemingly invincible and ferocious, the new predator goes on a rampage through the ecosystem, devouring what it wants and killing what it doesn't.
What supreme predators, especially new ones that didn't evolve within the ecosystem, don't realise is that destroying the system leaves them nowhere to live. Killing off all the prey, just because it can, leads to imbalance in, and eventually the death of, the ecosystem itself. Without an ecosystem to support life, the supreme predator itself dies.
This is an evolutionary lesson many supreme predators have learnt, which has altered their behaviour. Lions, Sharks, and even T-Rex would often spare the lives of some prey just so they can carry out their function in the ecosystem. Lions are known to overlook, or even sometimes retreat from, lesser beasts for the greater good.
Another thing that often ends the reign of a reckless, new, super predator is the smallest, overlooked part of the ecosystem. The Sabertooth Tiger, much larger and ferocious than the Lion will most probably succumb to regional bacteria than to another predator like the hyena or panther. See, all the other beasts had earned the right to be in that ecosystem by virtue of evolution; having achieved either immunity to or symbiosis with the microbes.
For our new Steem super predator, this process has already begun.
Peace and Love,
Adé