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Competition in Animals. What is meant by competition and why do animals compete with each other. What qualities are needed in order to become a successful competitor. Learning Outcomes. All students will know that animals have to compete to survive.
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Competition in Animals What is meant by competition and why do animals compete with each other. What qualities are needed in order to become a successful competitor.
Learning Outcomes • All students will know that animals have to compete to survive. • Most will be able to describe the features that make an animal a successful competitor and suggest the factors for which an animal is competing in a given environment. • Some will be able to explain why certain features make an animal a successful competitor.
Key Definitions • community – All the different types of organisms within an ecosystem. • population –The number of one particular species within a specific area. • competition –The struggle for resources between individuals of the same or different species. • habitat –The physical, non-living part of an ecosystem. • ecosystem –A specific type of environment and all the organisms living within it.
What is competition? All living things need natural resources, but the problem is that there is not enough for everyone. This means that individuals have to fight for them in order to survive. This struggle for resources is called competition.
Who competes? Competition occurs between members of different species. This is called interspecific competition. Competition also occurs between members of the same species. This is called intraspecific competition.
What do animals compete for? There are four resources for which animals compete. What are they? • food • water • mates • land (territory) Which resource is not relevant for interspecific competition? Members of different species will not compete for mates.
Competition and population size population rises more competition less competition population falls The size of a population varies due to factors such as disease, migration and predation. Intraspecific competition generally has a stabilizing effect on a population. Why is this?