This activity guides the analysis of a published scientific figure from a study that investigated how herbivore populations are regulated in the Serengeti.

In this study, scientists examined whether herbivore population sizes in the Serengeti ecosystem of East Africa are regulated by bottom-up factors (such as food) or top-down factors (such as predators). As part of this study, the scientists analyzed 40 years of data on the causes of death for members of multiple herbivore species. The figure compares the percentages of adults in each species that died due to predation with the adults’ body sizes (as measured by weight).

The “Educator Materials” document includes a captioned figure, background information, graph interpretation, and discussion questions. The “Student Handout” includes a captioned figure and background information.