One of the things I enjoy about the Alaska Zoo (aside from the lushly wooded grounds) is the predator/prey balance of the animals on exhibit. One could easily imagine a functional ecology (or plausible food web) based on the animals present.
Polar Bears would have the Harbor Seal (although I’m not sure how often the species encounter each other in the wild…Hudson Bay and probably the north shores of the Ungava Peninsula, I’d guess…maybe the Bering Sea off western Alaska).
Coyotes would have the fowl and the Rabbit, as well as the occasional Lamb, Kid, Calf, and Fawn of the smaller hoofed mammals. Opportunistically the Coyote would take the Red Fox and scavenge the kills of the larger predators.
Unless we imagine that the smaller rodents likely present in the underbrush of the zoo are included, the Red Fox, the Mink, and the Wolverine might have a hard time of it. The Wolverine would definitely function as a scavenger and winter predator of some of the hoofed mammals. The Mink has the Rabbit and the Red Squirrel and the fowl. As well as the fish, wood frogs, and aquatic invertebrates encountered in the streams. The Red Fox would scavenge (maybe along the shorelines of the lakes and coasts) where it could, as well as hunt rabbits and squirrels and fowl.
The Red Fox would be bottom of the chain, where it’s numbers would be suppressed by coyotes, who in turn would suffer from the wolves, themselves held down by the tiger. Snow Leopards might be immune from the dynamic except perhaps in summer when wolves moved above the tree line…or in the winter as the Leopard moved down into the forests. Except that both Mountain Goats and Dall Sheep tend to go higher in those seasons looking for the wind blown areas to forage, enabling the leopard in small numbers to stay above the trees.
Wolves would rule the steppes hunting Camels, Yaks, Vicuñas, Asses and the greater number of Caribou. Those packs that could adapt to the Tiger’s presence might prey on the Moose and Deer in the forests. Along the tree-line (and above it in the summer) the wolves would try for Dall Sheep, Mouflon, Mountain Goats, and Bezoar Ibex in the different specialized habitats (probably determined by precipitation and temperature conditions) suited to those species.
Snow Leopards would live on the mountain ungulates. In some areas they might follow the Vicuñas and maybe the Asses. The cats always ready to pickoff turkeys, foxes, and coyotes as the opportunity arose and they found themselves in close proximity to those species. In the summer months (when the deer moved above the tree line), or in forested areas not inhabited by wolves and tigers, the snow leopard might supplement its diet with the black tailed deer.
Tigers would almost assuredly prey primarily on the deer and…to the surprise of many…the black bear. Indeed the legendary shyness of the black bear would be fully understood as the bear adapted to once again sharing the landscape with a great cat. Moose and Caribou would be secondary prey animals (due to lack of relative abundance and only occasional overlapping habitat)…in some areas of (especially were hills or riverine habitats reached out into the grasslands) the steppes, tigers would be a great menace to the grazing animals as the herds approached the rivers valleys to drink or feed or simply cross to greener pastures.
The River Otter would lived as it does. The Lynx…probably not very common and very dependent on the rabbit. As would each of the birds of prey…except perhaps the sharp-shinned hawk (which might target songbirds and squirrels), the Bald Eagle (fish and carrion)…the Golden Eagle, in a predator rich environment, might turn heavily to carrion? The owls and the hawks would need the rabbit.
Brown Bears would be heavily reliant on seasonal food sources. Leaving hibernation, winter kills and weakened animals would be targeted. Later in spring calves and pups in unattended dens would be targets, and in the summer, grasses and the nests and offspring of the migrating waterfowl and ground nesting birds. Then the salmon as the summer rolled on. All through the seasons the bears would scavenge on animals washed ashore and on carcasses stolen from smaller predators or abandoned by tigers…and in the fall, berries to fatten up as winter approaches. Absent some type of abundant ground squirrel, the bears may have trouble living at the greatest elevations or highest latitudes.
Then we have the Muskox. Perhaps it shares a high latitude habitat with the caribou and has to deal with the occasional wolf. If the brown bear can survive (and it likely would require us imagining ground squirrels inhabit this land) the Muskox will suffer greatly from the bear. Muskox populations nearer the tree lines or perhaps in more southerly high latitude habitats might face the Tiger and would surely experience localized extinction to a point were only dispersal and low numbers actually saved the species.
Well…that’s how I visit a zoo! ;-)
