• Question: With the advent of rapid deforestation, animals would be extinct and what would their predators eat? Will they be extinct too?

    Asked by Vinay7M to David, Eva, Kate, Nicholas, Rachel on 16 Nov 2015.
    • Photo: David Nunan

      David Nunan answered on 16 Nov 2015:

      Hi,

      Maybe but maybe not!
      The ecosystems of rainforests are finely balanced and linked together from thousands of years of evolution.

      When one element of the ecosystem is disturbed then this will have knock on effects further down the chain.
      If a particular food source of one animal becomes scarce then the animals that eat those animals will struggle to find food.

      To survive they will either have to adapt to eat other animals or other types of food. If they don’t adapt then they may become extinct through starvation.

    • Photo: Nicholas Pearce

      Nicholas Pearce answered on 18 Nov 2015:

      Hey,

      It’s probably the predators that will die out first in that case. As the prey animals begin to die out it becomes much harder for a predator to survive. There are always fewer predators than prey, so it will be the predators that go extinct first usually.
      Everything is tied together in what is called ecosystem, so it’s easy to see how deforestation has a massive impact on all animals that live there. This is why keeping the forests is so important.
      Here’s an interesting video about rainforests if you’re interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3OWgb0Bv-A

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