It's an AP class im taking this new school year its acronym name is APES which stands for ap environmental science. Anyways the full question is:
Why are there more zebras than lions in africa? What will happen if it was the other way around?
Please help. Beg Face ⊙.⊙
carlos
Favorite Answer
lions are predators which are tertiary and/or secondary consumers in every level of food chain only 10% of the energy is passed so higher levels need to eat more then 1 .
Get what i mean?
if it was the other way around then the lions would die of not having enough food.
mclaughlin
Zebras Food Chain
?
If we assume that zebras are the primary prey of lions then there must be more of the prey animal than the predator or the predator will wipe out the prey causing both to be killed off. If it was the other way around the Lions would rapidly deplete the Zebra population and then they would experience a massive die off after they couldn't find food.
?
10% energy is passed along to each level on the food chain. that means that animals must consume more than one of what they eat to live to get enough energy. since 90% energy is lost along each level the food chain, that means that producers are the most high-energy thing to eat. However, lions can't eat these high energy plants because lions are tertiary consumers (that means they're highest on the food chain) so they are receiving the least amount of energy, and therefore must eat more than one zebra, or they will starve. if there were less zebras than lions, the lions would not have enough to eat and die out, taking the zebras with them.
think: if humans ate only pork but there weren't as many pigs as humans, what would happen?
Hope i helped!
L. E. Gant
Because if there weren't, all the zebras would disappear, and then so would the lions. Zebras are herbivores, and there is a lot of grasses and vegetation in the areas where the zebras thrive. Lions are carnivores, and can't survive on grasses and vegetation.