The Hunter and the Hunted
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Here's an excerpt from a great book I've just read: How To Be Wild by Simon Barnes (he of purple sporting prose in The Times) - its the kind of book that's almost perfect for me, a collection of heart-jolting pieces of nature writing, exploring the emotions we feel on interacting with the wildness that still lies all around us - it's actually a bit like reading a whole book of Nige
Anyway, on to Barnes:
"The fate of top predators is tied to that of their prey. And their prey are often boom-and-bust species. Every now and then, a population explosion is followed by a crash. It is not the predators that control the population: this is to do with the dynamics of their prey and their food sources. Rather, the prey dictates the number of predators: in a boom year, the predators are in cover; in a bust year, they suffer. It is the furry teddies that dictate the pace: and it is the sleek and fierce: those of sharp beak and cruel talons, that suffer when the prey population is down.
It is not the lions who are masters of the african bush. No: it is the buffalos they feed on. The impalas control the leopards. The weak control the strong: and no matter how many brilliant solutions the predators come up with - the teamwork of the lion, the stalking skills of the leopard, the ears of the owl and the vision of the falcon - it is always the hunted that remain in control."
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