by DGFone » January 23rd, 2019, 6:43 am
Strictly speaking, while the Lion Guard is canon, the Pride Lands are shown to be dead in the original movie due to Scar's reign, about twenty years before The Lion Guard was a thing. Is it really applicable to use TLG in answering this question?
More properly on-topic, there is a way for a lack of herbivores to translate into the death of plantlife. While I am not sure how it will work on dry land, this has happened and is a real problem in the seas: When plantlife is able to grow without constraint, it is possible for the plants to use up all the nutrients in the soil, thus creating a period of rapid plant growth followed by a massive die off.
In oceans, this is known as a Dead Zone, where "plant" life, in the form of an algae bloom, leaves large areas devoid of other life because of a lack of food. For that matter, about it happening on dry land: the Dust Bowl and similar events are caused by mass farming leading to this very problem.
To debunk my own post now, as fare as I can tell, for dry land, it usually takes a rather long time, as in number of decades, for this effect to go into action. I don't see it as being the reason why the Pride Lands bought it under the very brief rule of Scar.