In a forest, gazelles were the main source of food for cheetahs. The gazelles depended on grasses and shrubs for their food. A m
ysterious disease quickly spread among the cheetahs, killing many of them. What impact would the decline of the cheetah population have on resource availability? Because the number of cheetahs declined, the population of gazelles will most likely ____________. This situation, in turn, will lead to increased __________ between the gazelles and other herbivorous animals that eat the same food as gazelles.
first blank- decrease, increase, stay the same
second blank- competition, predation, sharing
Due to natural selection , if the predator of the gazelle declines, then the prey the gazelles will increase since there isn't many cheetahs killing them anymore. the second should be competition, since there will be more gazelles needing to eat.
As the population of cheetahs decrease due to the disease the population of gazelles would increase. This is because the cheetahs feed on gazelles, now when the population of cheetahs decline the predation of gazelles would decrease and hence, they will <em>increase</em> in number.
Now, that the population of gazelles is increasing and they feed on grasses and shrubs for food , they will compete with other herbivores as they will also depend on the same shrubs and grasses. So the <em>competition</em> between the gazelles and herbivores <em>increases</em>.
