>>12715138>so a bird population that has 10 individuals within a square mile Crows have tens to hundreds, migratory birds meet up with others from all over, and all species are drinking out of streams, eating off the ground, and eating raw meat. Many species that form pods will routinely interact with other pods, looser organized species it varies. The ability to manufacture vitamin C in the liver and other particularities in the design of the gut cannot fully explain their relative lack of disease.
>some animals die of disease but they get eaten.Large animals have bones that are too think to crunch and eat. The young often could be eaten fully, but nonetheless, studies done on small islands have found predation is the primary factor behind population flux.
>and as far as my own speculation goes the larger the animal the more potential there is for viruses or bacteria to disrupt the system. The attack surface is indeed larger, particularly if the animal is more complex, but the defense may also be more intricate and the relevance of disturbing a given could be lower.
>>12715144It's actually even worse than that. Most of their PREDATORS were killed over a century ago, and yet I STILL don't find their diseased and decaying bodies everywhere.
