Meat Eater Kids

Part 1

Why It's the way it is

On today's why it's the way it is,

we're going to talk about something called predator swamping.

You might hear that in picture of a wolf running through a swamp.

That's not what this is, though predator swapping can involve wolves.

Predator swamping is a strategy.

It's a technique or a way in which prey animals, meaning animals that are consumed by

other animals, in which prey animals can produce their babies in a way that reduces, okay,

or diminishes the chance that their babies are going to be killed by predators.

Now, to do this, let's picture ourselves up in the Arctic, okay, up in the far north.

So let's say we're going to go up to the top end of Alaska, where the northern border

of Alaska comes up against the Arctic Ocean.

There aren't any trees up there.

It's a type of low brush called tundra.

It's a lot of water, a lot of mosquitoes.

There's a consistent wind that comes off the ocean, okay?

And it's just a big, broad, wide, open landscape.

And in some of these areas, in northern Alaska, along the coast,

huge congregations of Caribou will gather during the spring calving season. When I say huge congregations of caribou will gather during the spring calving season.

When I say huge congregations to caribou, I mean it could be thousands.

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