Ecology and Cats

Ecology is the scientific study of the relations between organism and their environment.
The goal of ecology is to explain the patterns seen in the natural world.
Investigation into these patterns involve assessing the influence of biological and non biological factors.
Biological factors are all living things ( plants and animals) in an ecosystem.
Plants range from the savannah grass to the trees in the rainforest.
Animals range from a beetle to the mighty lion.
Non biological factors include sunlight, soil, water, temperature and oxygen levels.
Populations of organisms that share a habitat and interact with one another form a community.
On a larger scale, the interactions and interdependencies that connect organisms and their environments comprise an ecosystem.

Consider four examples;

1. Cats and bumblebees
What is the link between Bumble Bees, Red Clover, Field Mice and Cats?

Charles Darwin observed that Red Clover flourished with an increased local cat population
Why?
Field Mice destroy bumble bee nests,
The bumble bee is a major pollinator of red clover.
Cats hunt and kill field mice.
So the cats by preying on the mice, meant that more bumble bees survived to pollinate red clover.

2. Savannah fires and Lions
Natural fires during the dry season burn the vegetation to ground level.
This kills most fire intolerant shrubs and trees. Grasses are well adapted to live in dry regions prone to drought and fire. Grasses grow from their base rather than their tips and much of the plants energy is stored underground in their root system. So following a fire the grass can send up new growth,
Without fires the savannah would become forest ( the grazing herds also help control the growth of shrubs and trees. The huge herds of ungulates, wildebeest and zebras feed on the grasslands.
If the grasslands were not there than the savannah could not support the huge herds.
Without the huge herds the savannah could not support the quantity of big cats.
Thus without the natural fires, a large population would not exist.

3.Habitat decline and Cat numbers
In an area where the number of big cats have declined or disappeared, the number of the prey species increases and may increase rapidly. This may affect the types of plants in the ecosystem due to the browsing habits of the prey species and over grazing will lead to habitat decline

4. Mountain lions and Deer
Apart from habitat decline as in (3) it has also been observed in an area where the mountain lion has declined, deer populations have  grown unhealthy due to weak animals breeding which would have otherwise become prey.