This past weekend, we watched a couple of episodes of the Netflix series called The Hunt. The series is a powerful mix of beautiful imagery, David Attenborough’s eloquent narration and examples of the complex relationships in nature. The series explores the interconnectivity of predators and prey that makes up the intricate biodiversity on Planet Earth.
It was fascinating to watch it with my young children Silas and Ella. As the hunt reached its climax, they were heard cheering for the prey. As we learned, much to their delight, the predator is unsuccessful a vast majority of the time.
These relationships have evolved over many generations and both the predator and the prey have adapted perfectly to each other and their natural habitat. The continued existence of both relies heavily on conditions remaining essentially the same or, at the very least, only moderately varied.
When it comes to British Columbia’s caribou and wolf dilemma which I highlighted in my recent blog post, we can see the tragic impact when the balance is disrupted.
Appreciating the complexity of nature
Each predator has adapted tools and techniques that have allowed them to survive and thrive. Patience, steadfastness, stealth, speed, teamwork, highly developed senses of sight, hearing and smell, are just a few examples. Their prey have also developed equally powerful abilities and strategies to defend themselves.
What became so abundantly clear in watching this show is the vulnerability of all species to human interventions in the relationships that have evolved in nature.
We are undoing the status quo, altering landscapes and ecosystems at such a torrid pace that species cannot adapt quickly enough.
It’s not too late though! Nature is resilient and, in nearly every example we’ve seen in The Hunt so far, nature is patient. Unfortunately with the growing climate crisis humans must act quickly. When a predator fails, which many do nine out of ten times, they try again. Good advice for someone in my line of work!
Image by Yvonne Huijbens from Pixabay
I don’t mean it but you left the door too far open to resist….’so you identify as the predator and we the prey?’ Lol
I enjoy your blogs…keep it up. 🙂
If habitat is destroyed to a large extent and prey population is critically low, what do we do? Habitat will not recover quickly, especially in more extreme climates. We should stop the destruction, but what to do while it recovers. Will we lose the carbou if no positive action is taken now? Does this mean a wolf kill is necessary? I don’t know!