Mongabay

A new study shows how the disappearance of an apex predator, the great white shark, from South Africa’s False Bay triggered changes throughout the food chain.

With the loss of the top predator in the area, populations of its prey species, such as fur seals and sevengill sharks, increased; the latter’s prey, meanwhile, small fish and smaller benthic sharks, declined.

By Victoria Schneider
https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/loss-of-great-white-sharks-triggers-domino-effect-down-food-chain-study-shows/

#News #Conservation #Environment #Wildlife #Animals #Sharks

Loss of great white sharks triggers domino effect down food chain, study shows


CAPE TOWN — South Africa’s False Bay was once known as a global hotspot for great white sharks. But within the span of a few years, between 2015 and 2019, this apex predator vanished from the area, leading to profound ecological changes, according to a new study. The study suggests that the disappearance of the […]

Mongabay Environmental News
Apr 23 at 8:49amWeb
Show threadmillennial falconApr 23
@mongabay wow. explaining the essential and delicate balance of ecosystems to the human species that has already annihiliated its own ecosystem and is waiting now for extinction is like telling someone who has leapt off a cliff how gravity works on their way down. firstly, doing so can achieve nothing at all, and secondly they do not a fuck; they're about to die.
good on you doing it anyway though, those few of us capable of feeling regret should.
Show threadAndrej SpiridonovApr 23
@mongabay extirpations and extinctions of marine megafauna are certainly far less understood than the extinction of terrestrial megafauna (sabertooths and kin)...