One of the strange things about animals is that they are smarter than most people realize. The type of predator that hunts an animal will affect the animals behavior and gene pool. This was most startling in the case of the Key deer and the Florida panther. Originally Key deer were very small animals capable of running nimbly over the boggy swamps and eluding the panthers. Once the hunters who had no conservation ethics killed off the panthers then the key deer increased in body size. After protection occurred of the panthers so the people who had guns but no conservation ethics could not shoot them the panther population increased. Poor fat slow key deer got eaten left and right.
Miscellaneous fact is that the same person responsible for poisoning all of the prairie dogs - James Connaughton, also blocked legislation controlling mercury emissions from power plants and thus the levels of mercury in fish continue to rise and bioaccumulates in the panthers and they die young because it turns out that the panthers eat a lot of fish who bioaccumulate and biomagnify mercury.