Analytical argument reveals how high predatory efficiency affects prey dynamics, indicating potential extinction risks.
Available evidence and a new argument support the graphical theory of predation. In particular, the prey isocline can have positive slope over lower prey densities. Hence, from what is already known about the predator-prey interaction, high predatory efficiency, meaning the predator's ability to reproduce successfully in the presence of few prey, can be a source of instability, perhaps even resulting in the predator's extinction.
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Michael L. Rosenzweig (1969) studied this question.
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