Day 3- Competition

Dear Blog,


This is Day 3 of my travel blog.  Today during my journey around the desert I spotted four different sets of species competing against each other for some sort of prize.  It seemed as if these species were competing for resources.  The first competition I noticed was between the desert coyote and the sidewinder rattlesnake species.  Both animals were fighting over food such as the pocket mouse.  They were also fighting over water, since water is very scarce in the desert.  This specific scenario exemplifies interspecific competition, which occurs when members of different species occupy the same niche and have to compete for their needed recourse or materials.

Desert Coyote 

Sidewinder Rattlesnake eating Pocket Mouse 

Desert Pocket Mouse 

The second species competition was the red tail hawk verses the diamondback rattlesnake.  Both animals fight to the death for food in order to survive. This competition is also considered to be an example of interspecific competition.

Diamondback Rattlesnake 

Red Tail Hawk

A third example of competition between species that I spotted was the sarothrae plant verses the confertifolia plant. Although these two could not physically fight, both plants competed in other aspects.  For example, if rain were to come down suddenly, the water pulse causes the confertifolia plant to grow larger and stronger than the sarothrae, making it able to outlive and survive longer than the sarothrae plant. This shows that the confertifolia plant is better fit to survive in the water-scarce biome that is the desert.  This is also an example of interspecific competition.

Sarothrae Plant 

 

Confertifolia Plant 

Finally, one last example of competition involves cacti.  Water is scarce in the desert, so cactus plants do not grow very close together.  Their roots stretch out from under the soil, and they absorb the largest amount of water possible.  These roots of the cactus plants compete for space below the ground, since space is needed for them to obtain water.  Unlike the other three examples of competition, this example shows an intraspecific relationship because cacti of the same species have to compete for space and water.  However, cacti can also compete with other species for these necessities, and this would be called interspecific competition.

Cacti