Use and misuse of land, ancient and modern problems

Abstract

A small fox lives in the desert and someone wonders how, especially in a part of the world where the irregular rainfall amounts to not more than one or two inches a year and the poor vegetation consists of thin, thorny, dwarf shrub, mostly covered by sand. It was found that the foodsource of this fox is a kind of small snail living on the shrub. The almost leafless shrub offers the necessary feed for only a few snails. It could be observed too, that the fox comes out from his hole and picks up not all the snails from the shrub, but only a part of them. The ecologist could ascertain that the fox indeed feeds on as much snails as can be reproduced by the parents. The fox takes care to maintain the foodsource upon which his life and the life of his issues depend, even if he has to go hungry in his hole.