Keystone species mussel population explodes uncontrollably, driving out most other species. These creatures need not be apex predators. Sea stars are prey for sharks, rays, and sea anemones. Sea otters are prey for orca. The jaguar, whose numbers in Central and South America have been classified as near threatened, acts as a keystone predator by its widely varied diet, helping to balance the mammalian jungle ecosystem with its consumption of 87 different species of prey. The lion is another keystone species. Keystone mutualists are organisms that participate in mutually beneficial interaction and the loss of which would have a profound impact upon
Barbary ground squirrel Barbary ground squirrel The Barbary ground squirrel ("Atlantoxerus getulus") is a species of rodent in the family Sciuridae. It is monotypic within the genus "Atlantoxerus". It is endemic to Western Sahara, Algeria and Morocco and has been introduced into the Canary Islands. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, temperate grassland and rocky areas where it lives colonially in burrows. It was first described by Linnaeus in 1758. The Barbary ground squirrel is a small species growing to a length of between with a bushy tail of a similar length. It weighs up to and has short wiry