"Just what is a “Predator Pit”?

Wolf researchers have come to use the term when referring to an area where predators have pulled prey populations down so low that recovery of those populations is impossible, unless there is a drastic reduction in the number of predators. The situation results from how predators affect prey numbers in two different ways. One is the manner in which predators, especially wolves, kill far more adult prey animals than needed to survive, commonly referred to as “surplus killing”. The second is the destruction of the prey age class, due to the loss of newborn young of the year. And the loss of that recruitment can be either due to outright killing of fawns and calves in the spring (with excessive surplus killing), or due to the stress predators (especially wolves) place on pregnant females in winter, causing them to abort their fetuses. In the classic predator pit situation, a rising number of predators results in a constant decline in prey numbers, with the average age of surviving prey animals becoming older and older with each passing year – to the point that reproductive growth becomes impossible and the prey base begins to die off from old age.

This accurately describes the situation in much of the Northern Rocky Mountains of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming today.

- See more at: http://www.skinnymoose.com/bbb/2010/06/07/are-the-northern-rockies-in-a-predator-pit/#sthash.ffYQMhTT.dpuf"