predator studies—whether tigers in India, or lions in Africa—all seem to show that you can support one predator for every two hundred prey animals. That means to support twenty-five predators here, you need at least five thousand prey on this island. Do you have anything like that?” “No.” “How many animals in total do you think are here?” He shrugged. “A couple of hundred. Maybe five hundred at most.” “So you’re off by an order of magnitude, Ian. Hold this, and I’ll get the lamp.” She swung the heat lamp over the baby, to harden the resin. She adjusted the oxygen mask over the baby’s snout.
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