Basic Trope: A given ecosystem has way too many carnivorous animals and way too few herbivorous ones.
- Straight: The Bloody Jungle has about 3 known herbivorous species and at least 9 predatory ones.
- Exaggerated: There aren’t any herbivores: the closes is a species of small scavenger which is the basis of the food chain.
- Downplayed: Most of the predators are omnivores and do eat plant matter as well, but are unlikely to pass up potential prey.
- Justified:
- The area was recently ecologically devastated, with most herbivores dying.
- It’s an area like the Antarctic tundra or a coral reef, that is like this in real life.
- There's nothing that says a predator can't live on eating other predator species.
- The herbivores are Explosive Breeders and the predators are not, the number of species per type says little about the number of specimens per type.
- The predators are much smaller than their prey; it takes a huge pack to subdue one target, which can then feed the whole lot of them.
- Inverted: The area has way too many herbivores species and only one predator.
- Subverted:
- The area is almost complete filled with herbivores, despite rumours of a ludicrous number of predatory species.
- It turns out that the protagonists had only had the bad luck of encountering a lot of predators.
- It turns out that some animals that persecute them were very aggressive herbivores.
- Some of the apparent carnivores are actually omnivores and can perfectly eat plants.
- Double Subverted:
- It turns out those predators had migrated elsewhere, and the herbivores are now being swarmed by hundreds of meat-loving species.
- Precisely due to the high population of carnivores.
- Parodied: The area has so many frothing predators that the heroes can walk by in complete safety, knowing that they’ll just eat eachother and leave them alone.
- Zig Zagged: It varies by seasons: In winter and summer, herbivores are abundant ad there are very few predators, but in autumn and spring a massive number of predator migrate through the land and kill off most the herbivores, leaving them with dominant numbers in those seasons.
- Averted: Predators and prey are in realistic balance.
- Enforced: It’s an unintended side effect of filling an RPG world with many enemies for the player to fight.
- Lampshaded: “The hell do all these carnivores eat anyway?”
- Invoked: A mad scientist uses genetic engineering to custom-build an ecosystem to defend his lair, and decide to fill it with predators to provide better deterrence.
- Exploited: A Great White Hunter travels to the bloody jungle, knowing he’ll find a lot of good trophies there.
- Defied: “There aren’t going to be THAT many predators. They al need to eat, y’know.
- Discussed: “Jesus, it’s like its tigers all the way down over here! What happened to all the nice animals? Wait, never-mind, I think I can guess…”
- Conversed: “Let’s face it most stories are more concerned with coolness than ecological suitability.”
- Deconstructed: Eventually, the small herbivore supplies are overtaxed and they are driven to extinction. This causes the destruction of the ecosystem, with the overabundant predators starving to death.
- Reconstructed: The predators mostly eat each other, and the smell of blood travels for miles around the area. This causes a vicious cycle, as the smell attracts even more hungry predators which both dine and are dined upon. These in turn make the smell even stronger, causing a kind of gory equilibrium.
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