Re: Trexie and whales..?!

[freeman@netcom.com (Jay Reynolds Freeman)]

>      I notice in both these cases, the top predator is also the BIGGEST 
> carnivore around.  Are there any modern ecosystems where the top predator 
> is smaller than the largest carnivore (which is presumably a scavenger)?

  Not to answer the question, but to complicate it:  The largest contemporary
animal is not only a carnivore, but also a predator, and is possibly the
largest carnivore the planet has yet seen.  But it is not a *top* predator,
in the sense of feeding at the top of the food chain -- indeed, the _carne_
that the Blue Whale _vores_ are all pretty tiny, and baleen whales in 
general are often predated upon by much smaller critters.

                                             --  Jay Freeman