by Amur_Tiger » February 9th, 2017, 8:10 pm
[quote="TheLionPrince"]There's not really too much science that plays into the film unless you want to point how Scar threw off the balance of the food chain (mainly referred as the Circle of Life). There should always be a small population of predators that consume the first-level and/or second-level consumers. When there is a maximum of apex predators, the population of prey drastically decreases, which leaves the primary producers (autotrophs like trees, grass, and other vegetation) unchecked.
In the film, yes, Scar let the hyenas overhunt therefore the land suffered from overconsumption. It is possible a natural drought broke out during his reign in which he had no control of. As well, the Fisher King myth (the spiritual aspect everyone is mention) is applied in the film by which the condition of the kingdom is dependent on the goodness or evilness of those in power.
[quote="gothprincesskiara"]Scar and the hyenas, take over the pridelands, Scar lets the hyenas over hunt the land the land dies, BUT if the the herds were over hunted and or have moved on, WOULDN'T there be more vegetation since there was nothing to grazwe it, wouldn't it, shouldn't it have the OPPOSITE effect?[/quote]
There would be a surplus of vegetation, which is not a good thing. If there aren't any grazing animals around to keep in check, they would experience overgrowth, and coupled with a lack of rainfall, the vegetation would dry out and die.[/quote]
Overgrowth won't hurt in terms of overusing water, vegetation tends to preserve water resources in fact, if the drought would have killed all the plants then it would have done so regardless of vegetation levels due to under-grazing. This is also more or less the case for fires, though fire intensity can pick up due to fire suppression efforts and more vegetation, the primary cause there will still be the conditions that got the fire going, namely drought and very hot temperatures, probably coupled with high winds to spread it. You might also get that effect if somehow the lionesses and hyenas managed to eat all the bug-eating animals resulting in a locust swarm, but that's hard to imagine given how small many bug eaters are and thus smaller then they'd usually bother hunting.
In short, there's no real biological causation between Scar's reign and the particular shape of destruction wrought on the ecosystem, it's mostly there to reinforce the idea that 'Scar is bad' .
PS Hello everyone, it has been a while