Competition Between Animals

Intraspecific Competition

Competition between members of the same species.

The Grey Island Fox is found on the Channel Islands and is extremely small in size. This is because when the animals first arrived at the islands; food, water and shelter were extremely important but scarce. As the Grey Island Foxes began to reproduce, the competition level went up higher. Only the runt of the litters were able to find enough food and survive. As the smaller ones survived and outlasted their other members of the species, they continued to reproduce and passed on their small genes to their offspring.

Interspecific Competition

Competition that occurs between different species.

In the chaparrals, all animals are involved in interspecific competition. The chaparrals are an extremely dry, and hot biome, so all species of animals must compete against each other for water and shade.