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You see, killer whales, who live at the top of the ocean food chain, used to prey on sperm and baleen whales.
虎鯨在海洋食物鏈占據最高層，它通常捕食抹香鯨和須鯨。
When these were no longer available, the killer whales were forced to fish farther down the food chain.
當不是不到這類獵物時，虎鯨被迫捕食位于下一層的食物鏈（的生物）。
First they fed on seals, which were the easiest to catch and the most nutritionally valuable.
它們最先捕食的是海豹，后者最容易捕捉且營養價值最高。
Then, when seals became rare, the killer whales turned to sea lions.
然后，當海豹逐漸稀少，虎鯨將獵殺的目標轉向海獅。
When the sea lion population crashed, they started fishing sea otters.
而當海獅瀕危后，虎鯨又開始獵殺海獺。
The domino effect reaches even farther. Without sea otters keeping sea urchins in check, their population has exploded.
這一多米諾效應逐漸延伸。沒了海獺約束海膽，海膽的數量迅速膨脹。
And they've destroyed the kelp forests, and with it, the kelp forest ecosystem in southwestern Alaska.
此外,它們還會破壞阿拉斯加西南部的海藻林生態系統。
What all these means is that animals switching food sources can have a very serious effect on the environment.
動物間交換食物來源會對環境造成嚴重的影響。
And that we humans, as the ultimate predators, need to give a lot of thought to the way the choices we make can affect the food web in unintended ways.
而人類作為終極捕食者，需要慎重得考慮所做的決定。這些決定可能會以人們所不知道的方式來影響食物鏈。
譯文為可可英語翻譯，未經授權請勿轉載!
