Talk:hyperpredation

second sense

i admit that i simply dont understand w:Hyperpredation, but it's clearly talking about something different than what we currently list as a definition. Fact is, hyperpredation in the sense we currently list is mostly a theoretical concept, since the food chain on land isn't very long .... if we consider ourselves to be predators, we could consider ourselves hyperpredators too since we eat pigs and a few other carnivorous animals. Most other claims of hyperpredation on land use fish as the "predator" that is being eaten. And hyperpredation in water does clearly exist, but is hardly worth mentioning since everyone knows about the big fish / little fish thing and no one would call sardines predators. —Soap— 15:56, 26 December 2023 (UTC)

Thanks to Equinox for adding the new definition. I admit even reading it fresh I still dont quite understand what it means and hope that he or someone else can find a wording that's more accessible to me and to unfamiliar readers. It just doesnt make sense. w:Hyperpredation also mentions, rather counter-intuitively, that a synonym for this word is hypopredation. —Soap— 04:24, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

this paper suggests that it can play out like this:

First, there are 1,000 wolves and 10,000 sheep on the island.

The wolves eat 1,000 sheep, but 1,000 sheep give birth, so the sheep population stays stable.

Then, 10,000 rabbits move in.

The 1,000 wolves eat 4,000 rabbits, but gain barely any nutrition from this, so they eat 700 sheep to make up the calorie deficit.

The sheep population again reproduces, but the wolves also reproduce. Meanwhile, the rabbit population increases to 40,000 due to very rapid reproduction.

The wolves eat 16,000 rabbits, which put up barely any fight, but this only makes them even more hungry, so they eat another 1,200 sheep.

Soon, rabbits are everywhere, and although the wolves are not fond of them, they eat 32,000 rabbits and give birth to another litter of pups. Soon, rabbit-fed wolves begin reproducing rapidly. The sheep still have enough grass to feed on but their birth rate does not increase like that of the wolves and rabbits. The wolves eat 6,400 sheep to supplement their now mostly rabbit-based diet.

And so on. This definition is difficult to fit concisely into a Wikipedia article, let alone a Wiktionary definition, but maybe we could at least add the word indirect. Also I believe the wolf-sheep-rabbit scenario I came up with is only one subset of this sense of hyperpredation, which in turn has two completely unrelated definitions (see also apex predator and possibly superpredator for a synonym of the first listed sense, although describing the predator, not the action). —Soap— 04:39, 19 February 2024 (UTC)