The territory is an
ecosystem.
It is supplied and is being discarded of
steady and predicatable
resources.
Let us say it is just light from the
sun,
water, and
minerals.
In
Nature, this is never really so simple.
But usually there are territories that are sort of separate
where things don't change so much most of time.
In
Science, we look at simple
models like the
ecosystem so that we can analyze
our findings without worrying too much about things
that we think will not affect our conclusions to a significant degree.
And so this set of predictable resources can support
exactly 70
Cheetahs in our imaginary territory.
There are many other living creatures and plants in this
territory, some help our cheetahs, some fight it,
some are their food.
But the ecosystem is stable, with stable resources,
and all the other creatures and plants,
like our cheetahs, will keep a stable
quantity.
The animals who are food for the cheetahs will only
replicate so much before the cheetahs eat them,
and so they can feed just those 70 cheetahs and no more.
And so with the food animals,
there will be no more than what the cheetahs
will allow and let live,
and no less, because otherwise they will replicate until there are just enough.
There are seventy cheetahs in the territory today.
Seventy where here 70 years ago.
And also 700 years ago.
