The balance of nature
From the Early Pandora Wiki Na'vi legend Real world Wiki lore
Balance means every part of nature has just enough, and nothing takes too much. It is the main idea of the duck-sucker legend, and one of the most important ideas in real science, too. Na'vi legend Real world
The swamp food chain
- Sunlight and water helped water plants and bugs grow.
- The tak ate the water plants and bugs.
- The Taktswìkyu ate the tak.
Na'vi legend
Words scientists use
| Word | What it means | In the swamp |
|---|---|---|
| Producer | A living thing that makes its own food from sunlight Real world | Water plants, drift lilies |
| Consumer | A living thing that eats other living things Real world | Tak, silverfin, stilt herons |
| Predator | Something that hunts and eats animals Real world | The Taktswìkyu |
| Prey | An animal that is hunted Real world | The tak |
| Food web | Many food chains joined together Real world | See Ancient swamp life |
| Keystone species | One species that many others depend on Real world | The tak |
| Carrying capacity | The most of one kind of living thing a place can feed, year after year Real world | The swamp could feed only so many Taktswìkyu |
Ateyo's scale
In the early days there were thousands of tak, and each Taktswìkyu needed only about one duck per full moon. The ducks laid eggs faster than the plants ate them, so their numbers stayed about the same. Grandmother Ateyo shows this by holding her hands level like a scale, ducks on one side and duck-suckers on the other. As long as the scale stayed level, everyone survived. Na'vi legend
The balance sum
New ducks hatched each moon − ducks eaten each moon = change in ducks
Wiki lore gives some round numbers. Say a swamp had 3,000 tak and 100 Taktswìkyu. If the ducks hatched about 120 new chicks a moon and the plants ate 100, the ducks grew a little. When there were too many ducks, some went hungry, so they always settled back. Wiki lore
After the Long Rains there were 250 plants. Even eating one duck each, they took 250 a moon, but only 120 hatched. That is 130 fewer ducks every moon, and the plants wanted even more. Wiki lore
How balance was lost
When the Long Rains made the plants bigger and more numerous, more and more duck-suckers piled onto one side of the scale. That tipping point led to the Great Hunger, which has a chart showing the numbers year by year. Na'vi legend
What keeps nature in balance?
- Many foods. An animal that eats many things can switch when one becomes rare. The Taktswìkyu could not. Real world Wiki lore
- Predators of predators. In a healthy web, even big hunters have something that keeps their numbers down. Nothing ate the Taktswìkyu. Real world Wiki lore
- Time to recover. Animals need time to have young. Taking a little, and then waiting, lets them grow back. Real world
- Paying attention. Noticing early, before something becomes rare, gives time to fix the problem. Real world
Balance on Earth
Real ecosystems show the same ideas. Real world
- Wolves in Yellowstone. When wolves were brought back to Yellowstone National Park in 1995, they kept the elk moving, which let young trees by the rivers grow back. Scientists still study how big the effect was. Real world
- Sea otters and kelp. Sea otters eat sea urchins. Where otters disappeared, urchins ate the kelp forests down to bare rock. Where otters returned, the kelp grew back. Real world
- Lynx and hares. In northern Canada, lynx and snowshoe hare numbers rise and fall together in a cycle of about ten years. Both survive, because the lynx go hungry before the hares run out. Real world
How the Na'vi keep the balance
After the Great Hunger, wiki lore says the Na'vi made the balance part of daily life: hunters leave "one for the mother, one for tomorrow," children learn Ninat's Three Questions, and the remembering song is sung whenever an animal grows rare. Wiki lore Today the Na'vi still thank every animal they take and return its spirit to Eywa. Canon