A black-backed jackal and hooded vulture scavenging in the Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania.
The 10 Percent Rule: Nature’s Energy Budget and Psalm 104
Most of us understand the idea of the food chain in the natural world (this one eats that one and so on and so forth), but are you aware of the 10 percent rule?
In ecology, the 10 percent rule suggests that as energy is passed from producers (plants) to consumers (animals), the bulk of that energy—roughly 90%—is lost to life processes such as movement, heat production, reproduction, or waste. Only about 10 percent of energy is successfully transferred from one trophic level to the next.
This biological reality is why food chains remain short (usually capped at five levels) and why a healthy ecosystem requires a massive base of producers to support just a few top predators.
The Clean-Up Crew of the Ngorongoro Crater
The clean-up crew pictured above is a critical last stop for energy transfer in the Tanzanian grasslands. Scavengers and decomposers break down the last scraps of carcasses (often inedible to others) and release it back into soil. Plants absorb the nutrients from the soil and the cycle begins again (cue the “Circle of Life” tune from Disney’s Lion King).
Ecological Wisdom in Psalm 104
This system of the food chain is hinted at in Psalm 104. Contemplate these edible bits from vss 27-31:
“All creatures look to you to give the food at the proper time. When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are satisfied with good things. . . When you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground. May the glory of YHWH endure forever; may YHWH rejoice in his works.”
In the biblical view, the death of one creature and its "return to the dust" is not a glitch in the system, but the very mechanism by which the Creator renews the face of the ground. The jackal and the vulture are not just scavengers; they are ministers of this renewal, ensuring that nothing is wasted and that the glory of the natural world endures.