Question

If the owl is removed from the food web, what will most likely be the result and why?

(PICTURE)

Select one:
a. The mountain lions will leave the area because there will be less prey available in the ecosystem
b. The sparrow and rabbit populations will increase sharply because they will have no predators in this environment.
c. The raspberry bush population will increase because there will be less rabbits due to the increased predation by the fox and the hawk
d. The hawk population will increase because there will be less competition within their niche in this environment.

Answer 1

Hey there!

I would say that the answer is D. 

A is not true, since the mountain lion doesn't predate on the owl. Therefore, the lion will not be affected by the removal of the owl. 

B is not true either, since the sparrow and rabbit will still be the prey of the fox and the hawk. The population will most likely stay about the same in these two species in this ecosystem. 

C isn't necessarily true either. The removal of the owl will have some sort of effect on the ecosystem, but likely won't affect the amount that the fox and the hawk usually eat. 

That leaves D. If there's more resources that birds use after the owl is removed, the hawk will most likely reproduce more and the population will grow. The other populations might not, since animals like foxes don't use the same resources that the birds do. 

Hope this helped you out! :-)