History Main / MorePredatorsThanPrey

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}:'' There are hints that predation occurs in the Pokémon world despite being glossed over (most noticeably in Pokedex entries). There is an abundance of Pokémon biased off of carnivores compared to herbivores, with many of the stronger Pokémon looking like they are carnivorous.

* [[Webcomic/{{Homestuck}} On Alternia]], everything is considered unsuspecting prey by everything else.

* Both {{Lampshaded}} and {{Justified}} in ''Literature/Metro2033''. The Surface is rife with pretty much nothing but predatory mutants, many of whom prey on each-other as often as they do the humans who venture up there. Their existence is purely a byproduct of the nuclear and biological bombings of Moscow during WorldWarIII. The narration describes them as existing outside of Darwin's laws, subject only to life's inherent desire to survive.

* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'': Pretty much every living being in the Dark World and Lorule in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'' and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds'' is some sort of monster out for blood, making you wonder what the heck they actually feed on. It's also a case of MoreCriminalsThanTargets (in both worlds), so how either remain somewhat stable is unknown.

* ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'': The imbalance of Red mana on the shard of Jund means that almost every creature is a predator of some sort, with the lower end being occupied by small but poisonous lizards, goblins, and fungal mutants, and the top of the food chain being reigned over by dragons. This is represented mechanically by the [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=174968 Devour ability]], which allows you to make a large creature even larger when you cast it by feeding it with other creatures you control, several of which were [[http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=376519 designed for just such a fate]]. The ecosystem of Jund is so vicious and efficient that undead do not exist despite the powerful Black mana on the shard because no corpse lasts long enough to become undead.

* In the underground ecosystem of the ''{{Literature/Railsea}}'', herbivores are stated to be a small, unhappy minority. [[EverythingTryingToKillYou Everything else tries to eat everything else]], including people who touch the open dirt between the rails for any longer than a split second.

** This can also be explained away by the fact hunters are placed on a map with only their target and occasional invaders in terms of large monsters (''[[VideoGame/MonsterHunterWorld World]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/MonsterHunterRise Rise]]'' include two other large monsters on the map whether counted as invaders or not) whilst multiple small monsters (herbivores or carnivores) spawn on the map at any time. This means the large amounts of carnivores are seen not because they have inherently high populations, but because they are specifically chosen and sought out for you to hunt.

* An interesting variant occurs in the ''VideoGame/{{Pikmin}}'' series where every last enemy in the game is seemingly a predator to pikmin and pikmin alone. No enemy will ever try to eat another enemy, ever. Taking things even further, some enemies will go out of their way to kill pikmin but not eat them without displaying similarly territorial behavior towards other nearby wildlife. A possible explanation is that most of these enemies actually ''are'' herbivores, but view pikmin as plants. The territorial species like wollywogs might attack pikmin because they're a novel and invasive presence in their environment and they haven't acclimated to them.
* The settings of the Dark World and Lorule in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'' and ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds'' seem to be this. Pretty much every living being in both seems to be some sort of monster out for blood, making you wonder what the heck they actually feed on. It's also a case of MoreCriminalsThanTargets (in both worlds), so how either remain somewhat stable is unknown.

* There are not nearly enough rabbits and deer in ''VideoGame/DragonsDogma'' to support the many wolves you fight. Which is probably why all the wolves are so emaciated and eager to attack you in the first place.
* The amount of prey animals required to nourish the wolf packs and [[BearsAreBadNews bears]] the Inquisitor will encounter in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'' in the same (relatively) small areas of territory would strip the environment bare and cause rapid environmental collapse. There's even a gigantic dinosaur-sized "Great Bear" found in the Emerald Graves and Emprise du Lion that, while much less common than the other predatory enemies in the game, is still far too abundant for a macropredator of its caliber thanks to the nature of the game's enemy respawn system. Naturally, ''all'' of these are unrelentingly aggressive to the Inquisitor and crew to an unrealistic degree, but it's suggested in passing that their aggression is due to corruption from [[OurDemonsAreDifferent demons]] and the open rifts. Alternatively, they could have come from the Fade, since it's possible to summon animals from there.

** The ghouls ''themselves'' are victims of this from the CCG: since all of their weapons are made from dead ghouls, they most be fairly successful at hunting and killing them, yet, as stated, there's still ''hundreds'' in the city alone.

* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}:'' There are hints that predation occurs in the Pokémon world despite being grossed over (most noticeably in Pokedex entries). There is an abundance of Pokémon biased off of carnivores compared to herbivores, with many of the stronger Pokémon looking like they are carnivorous.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' has Catachan, a DeathWorld where all animal species (and most plants) are carnivorous predators. This includes ''mobile'' Venus Fly Traps big enough to eat a adult human and centipedes the size of trains.

* "Bottleneck" locales that roving prey animals must visit periodically, such as desert waterholes or cliffside rookeries on isolated islands, can ''look'' like this trope, with whole mobs of predators ganging up to ambush and/or harry any prey that happens by alone or in small groups. In this case, sampling bias is to blame, as far greater numbers of prey than predators are actually dependent on such locations: they just spend most of their time foraging elsewhere, unlike the predators which can sit and wait for lunch to arrive.

* "Bottleneck" locales that roving prey animals must visit periodically, such as desert waterholes or cliffside rookeries on isolated islands, can ''look'' like this trope, with whole mobs of predators ganging up to ambush and/or harry any prey that happens by alone or in small groups. In this case, sampling bias is to blame, as far greater numbers of prey than predators doubtless make use of such a crucial location: they're just not all there at once.

** ''Film/KongSkullIsland'' similarly [[ZigzaggingTrope zigzags]] it. On the one hand, giant gaurs are clearly shown to be herbivorous and to be a convenient food supply for the giant predators (sans Kong himself, who treats them more like friends or pets than prey) on Skull Island. On the other hand, it's still populated by an insane number of predaceous organisms from flocks of piranha-like leatherwings to giant daddy longleg spiders and swamp squid. Not to mention the hoarde of hypercarnivorous [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent Skullcrawlers]] dwelling just beneath the surface. In the latter case, it's established that the Skullcrawlers hibernate or lie dormant until aroused, at which point, they'll invade the surface on massive feeding frenzy. Their periods of dormancy and Kong(and/or his kind's) ability to keep them in check for ages past ae the only reason they haven't decimated Skull Island's already tenuous ecosystem.

** ''Film/KongSkullIsland'' similarly [[ZigzaggingTrope zigzags]] it. On the one hand, giant gaurs are clearly shown to be herbivorous and to be a convenient food supply for the giant predators (sans Kong himself, who treats them more like friends or pets than prey) on Skull Island. On the other hand, it's still populated by an insane number of predaceous organisms from flocks of piranha-like leatherwings to giant daddy longleg spiders and swamp squid. Not to mention the hoarde of hypercarnivorous [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent Skullcrawlers]] dwelling just beneath the surface.

** ''Film/KongSkullIsland'' similarly [[ZigzaggingTrope zigzags]] it. On the one hand, giant gaurs are clearly shown to be herbivorous and to be a convenient food supply for the giant predators (sans Kong himself, who treats them more like friends or pets than prey) on Skull Island. On the other hand, it's still populated by an insane number of predaceous organisms from flocks of piranha-like leatherwings to giant daddy longleg spiders and swamp squid. Not to mention the hoarde of hypercarnivorous Skullcrawlers dwelling just beneath the surface.

* In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'', on Telos, there are Cannocks (and Bounty Hunters), which are at the very least hostile and onmivorous, but no "peaceful" or herbivorous creatures. If you point this out to Bao-Dur he reminds you that the planet's being terraformed and the cannocks were introduced to control herbivore numbers. Then[[MegaCorp Czerka Corp]] hijacked the project, released too many cannocks and sent the ecosystem down the tubes. [[DeathWorld Dxun]] has no such excuse, though.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' ave catachan, a [[DeathWorld Letal World]] where all animal species (and even some vegetables) are predators.

** At least in ''World'', this is averted, where there are a number of prey animals scattered about. Additionally, with previous games, a number of the powerful monsters are, in fact, ''herbivores''. Diabolos in particular is merely a very territorial and aggressive plant eater that could kill foolish or desperate carnivores trying to prey on it, providing food for scavengers. As for predators hunting other ones, only a small amount of monsters are known to actually do that, meaning they're more opportunistic and prey on weakened monsters rather than actively hunt them.

** In VideoGame/TheElderScrollsOnline the Clockwork City's "wildlife" only consists of scavengers and predators. The in-game explanation for it is that there's very little actual plant life in the City (the trees, grass etc. are all metal imitations), and the "animals" are actually {{Magitek}} cyborgs (fabricants) or outright robots (like skeevatons or brasslisks) that only exist because the City is meant to be a simulacrum of Tamriel, and Tamriel has animals so Seht put some in.

* Inverted in ''Disney/{{Zootopia}}'': It's explicitly said by one of the characters that prey outnumbers predators 10 to 1 in the eponymous city. However, they're not ''literally'' predator or prey, just distant descendants thereof, thus real-world predation dynamics don't really apply. Presumably prey species are just in the majority because of inertia.

* If you count ''parasites'' as predators, this trope becomes almost universal. It requires a large population of deer to sustain a small population of wolves, but a single deer can support ''thousands'' of external and internal parasites. Humans and the domestic animals we protect from infestation are the rare exceptions, and only in parts of the world sufficiently-affluent to ensure good sanitation, proper hygiene, preventative medical care, and safe food and drinking water.

* ''Videogame/{{Subnautica}}'''s world, and some of its biomes in particular, can seem rather top heavy, what with the [[KrakenAndLeviathan massive leviathan-class predators]] roaming around and a general lack of variety when it comes to prey creatures and especially herbivores. Subaquatic biomes ''are'' known for being quite like this, however, so there is some justification.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' ave catachan, a [[LetalWorld Letal World]] where all animal species (and even some vegetables) are predators.