Question

Which population of predators is potentially most stable? a population that specializes on one type of prey a population that is composed primarily of juveniles a population at its maximum sustainable yield a population that feeds on many types of prey a population that is composed of fertile adults?

Answer 1

The survival of a species of predator will depend on its carrying capacity and the growth rate. The carrying capacity is determined by the amount of food resource and the spatial constraints. The predators will grow to the maximum number permitted by their carrying capacity of the inhabited niche. We call this point of max carrying capacity as the stable fixed point. If the carrying capacity remains unchanged in a niche, then a reduced number of predators will recover their numbers quickly to reach the stable fixed point. The maximum sustainable yield is the point on the growth curve of predators. At this point, the population of predators is exactly half the times its carrying capacity. Any disturbance leading to MSY can be considered a non-disturbing change or neutral change, as the population tends to recover past MSY point.

Answer is a population at its maximum sustainable yield.

Answer 2

The correct answer is - a population that feeds on many types of prey.

The predators that are highly versatile in their diet are usually the ones that get over through crises periods, dying out of species, natural disasters... This is due to their ability to adapt to feed on various prey animals, so they are not dependant only on one or two species for their survival. Also this type of predators have developed multiple hunting strategies, unlike the highly specialized predators.

A perfect example for this is the survival of the cougar and the dying out of the smilodon. While the smilodon was a highly specialized predator for only certain type of prey and only one hunting strategy, the cougar was and still is a predator that hunts everything from rodents to birds, and from rabbits to elks. So when a change occurred in the ecosystem, the smilodon died out because its prey died out and it was not able to feed itself, while the versatile cougar managed to survive because it was able to prey upon most of the animals and had perfected multiple hunting strategies.