Rise Of The Mesopredator🎵 (ft. ScienceWithTom)

Hi, this is Emily in a special musical edition of MinuteEarth featuring Science with Tom. The food webs of the world all used to have so-called apex predators – like lions, tigers, and bears - at the very top. But humans have posed a major threat to apex predators by breaking up their habitats and hunting many of them to near extinction. It was good to be king. We were trophic elite Prey ate the plants And we ate their meat. Then this little ape called "man" wanted to compete And as the humans spread And invaded globally They broke up our habitats And killed us all rather fast They were shooting us for sport or for eating sheep Lions lynx and sea eagles Alphas worldwide, met precipitous decline Leopards Wolves and hammer-heads Were persecuted Leaving disarray behind Not to throw shade, but this trophic downgrade Will simply open up space for some lesser-grade "so-called hunters" These so-called hunters are the mesopredators. They’re replacing apex predators all over the world, and they do things differently. Skunk Raccoon Mahi Mahi Mongoose Catshark Dogfish Jackal Large Squid! Food chain food chain food chain food chain food chain (woof) Apex out - we the new thing (youth) And we don’t need a huge range (ooo) As you get killed by the humans (ooof) Mesopredators gonna move in (truth) Say goodbye to our old foes (ooh) Yeah what a relief! (phew) No competition or hunting (cool) So Mesopredators are released! (ooo) When farmers hunt down lions (shoot) Just to protect livestock (moo) Nobody left to eat baboons (baboon) Who start eating all the crops! (true) Sharks getting killed for their fins? (stew) Boomtime for the rays and skates (ooo) But they eat all the bivalves (food) Humans left with an empty plate (poof) Fence out all the dingoes? (shoo) Foxes rise in a blink (ooh) And as the fox keeps hunting (ooh) Little mammals go extinct (potoroo) But we’re not just thriving (coup) Due to the apex crash (boom) Living near humans is rich (ooh) We’re sitting here eating up trash (and rats!) Food chain food chain food chain food chain food chain (woof) Trophic cascades happen quick with apex gone and we’re turned loose. We can thrive by human side rise up the food chain ‘til we rule The rule of mesopredators has wreaked havoc on many ecosystems so in some places, humans have helped reintroduce some old-school apex predators to keep the mesopredators in check. In Yellowstone Which had been our home We used to eat up coyotes But as we were killed Coyotes were thrilled It was a mouse and rabbit feast But that hurt the hawks... ...badgers and fox who had relied on them for meat But since we’ve returned, they’re starting to learn That we can help other species Reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone helped restore the whole ecosystem. But most people don’t want a wolf in their backyard – or a lion, tiger or bear – so mesopredators will probably continue to rise to the top of the charts. Food chain food chain food chain food chain food chain (woof) Food chain food chain food chain food chain food chain (woof) This video was sponsored by Dashlane, a password manager that helps protect your data from all sorts of predators - meso, apex or otherwise - by generating and storing secure passwords for your accounts Here at MinuteEarth, we're long-time Dashlane users and one of our favorite features is that Dashlane alerts us to any security breaches on the sites we use and then helps us update those passwords and sync them across all team members' devices. To get Dashlane for free today, click on the link in the description; you can also use the special promo code minuteearth to get 10% off Dashlane Premium.

Channel: MinuteEarth

Views: 856,930

Rating: 3.9530241 out of 5

Keywords: MinuteEarth, Minute Earth, MinutePhysics, Minute Physics, earth, history, science, environment, environmental science, earth science, Food web, food chain, trophic level, apex predator, mesopredator, mesopredator release, trophic cascade

Id: jsJj9q5UKlE

Length: 4min 39sec (279 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 14 2018