In my story a group of characters will be sent to a space habitat which contains some of the deadliest alien creatures for a survival training mission.
The majority of the species will be carnivores as well as some dangerous herbivores.
To make this question answerable I will make a comparison to earth animals and ask how long a habitat of said animals could sustain itself.
The rotating cylinder will have a 2km diameter and 10km length giving it a surface area of 69km2, full of terrain suitable for each species such as, forests, grass plains, rivers, hilly areas and larger bodies of water.
The earth animals most comparable to the alien creatures are as follows:20 x Wolves, 3 x bears, 20 x hyenas, 15 x lions, 5 x jaguars, 3 x tigers, 2 x anacondas, 10 x komodo dragons, 10 x eagles, 10 x crocodile. herbivores will include 15 x hippos, 15 x rhinos, 5 x gorilla's, 15 x buffalo.
Some of these figures are taken from the average group and territory size and some are just amounts I chose. there will be a sufficient amount of males and females as each species will be used to having in a group, enough to hopefully allow them to breed.
There will be a plentiful amount of vegetation, creatures like bees and hummingbirds will help to pollinate. There will also be fish and small rodents to serve as a source of food for the carnivores, although small and hard to catch. plankton, smaller fish and algae will be in the bodies of water to provide food for the larger fish.
The point of this habitat is purely to be a challenge for the group to survive or complete a task like getting to the opposite side of the cylinder. I wondered with a major lack of suitable prey how all the predators would react or survive?
It is known when some predators share the same space they tend to stay out of each others ways such as wolves with bears or lions with hyenas but there will be cases where the young, weak or old will be attacked.
I am wondering if I should have all creatures released into separate areas as soon as the group arrives, or could they survive in the habitat and make it home given enough time, so that when my group arrive they will have found their suitable areas and learned what other creatures are there and if they should avoid them.
For an extra experiment when the group finishes the training and leave the cylinder, and because my story doesn't have FTL it might be a few thousand years before anyone thinks to even return to the cylinder. If the creatures were able to survive for a short amount of time in the cylinder it would be interesting to see if anything remains or has adapted thousands of years later.
Apologies for the long winded question and if it sounds like I am asking "who would win a fight between x and y?". I could have summed it up as could a habitat of mostly carnivores and hard to kill herbivores sustain its self for a length of time?
Could this habitat theoretically sustain itself for a length of time? would the predators hunt each other sooner than they would in the wild with more space and prey? which type of creature could likely survive the longest if the vegetation, rodents and fish survive and multiply?
If there are any further details needed to make this answerable let me know and I will update the question.