Ecology is the study of how animals interact with each other and how
they interact with their environment. For example baby red fox's play
with each other by biting their ears or scratching them. Gray fox's interact
with their environment by climbing trees and sleeping in them.
An Ecosystem is a biological community of interacting organisms and their
environment. For example a group of fox's interact with each other by
playing together and hunting together.
Limiting Factor: Say there is a pack of wolves that are living in an
area with deer. If there is only enough space for ten wolves maximum
and if there already are ten wolves then the limiting factor is the space.
But if the deer were being killed by a disease then there wouldn't be a
lot of food for the wolves, so the limiting factors is the food shortage.
The niche that a wolf might have is a carnivorous one because they are
carnivores and they eat rabbits and they depend on rabbits for survival
but they depend on other animals to so if the deer were all to die or get
eaten and if all the other kinds of animals that the wolfs eat leave then
the wolfs would die of no food. Wolves could also die of natural things to
like old age or accidents or even storms and other kinds of things.
Symbiotic Relationships
Mutualism: Mutualism is when both animals that work together benefit
from helping each other. For example a clown fish depends on a sea anemone
for their survival because sea anemones have stingers that sting other fish
but don't sting clown fish because they have a protection coating that keeps
it from getting stung and the clown fish's help the sea anemones by cleaning
up the sea anemone after it stings other fish.
Commensulism: Commensulism is when one animal benefits and nothing happens
to the other one. For example when cows walk around eating grass they have
little birds sitting on them waiting for the bugs and insects in the grass
to fly out because when cows walk they shake the grass and they shake off
bugs and insects.
Parasitism: Parasitism is when one animal benefits and the other gets
harmed. For example roundworms can benefit from killing or hurting other
animals like puppies or horses and other animals.
Having all kinds of animals in an area is very important because all those
animal's can do certain types of things. Some animals might be carnivores
so they would hunt other animals but that's only for their survival. Some
animals might be herbivores so they wont eat other animals instead they will
eat grass but they could be eaten by other animals. Some animals might be
omnivores so they would be both meat eaters and grass eaters and they would
eat meat and grass. Without all kinds of different animals in an area it would
be boring just seeing one type when you could see many more.
Gray Tree Frog Foodweb Habitat Loss