Re: Grendels was: FT-Fighters and SG-aliens

Andy Cowell wrote:

> In message <14l5Ka-1qc5rcC@fwd04.sul.t-online.com>,
KH.Ranitzsch@t-online.de wr
> ites:
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> > Spoilers follow below ;-)
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> > The adult Grendels are vaguely frog-shaped. They are fairly
> > intelligent (somewhere between ape and human) and of an extremely
> > fierce disposition. They will eat Grendel larvae (indeed, that's
> > their main food)
>
> A species whose primary food source is their own young?  I'm no
> biologist, but this does not strike me as a successful survival trait.
> What about the predator/prey relationship, whereby the predators eat
> lots of prey, the prey become scarce, the predators die off and breed
> less, the prey breeds more, the predators eat more and breed more,
> etc...?  Seems like one low cycle and you're in a downward spiral
> towards extinction.

Their own young are not the primary food source, the young are the food
source of
last resort.  This has the desirable effect of limiting the number of
adults to
what the prey can support.  What makes this strategy work is that the
young do not
compete with the adults for food.  This cycle only leads to extinction
when the
local ecology can neither support an adult, nor the young.