How do organisms interact?

Lesson 4
Competition Among Animals
• Normally if you compete with your friends, the prize for the winning
maybe a trophy, or just the pride of wining.
• But in the world of animals reasons of competition is much greater.
Competition Among Animals
• Organisms compete for the things they need. Like
food, water, space, light, or mates
• Animals often compete for their lives.
• Any animal cannot compete may die, or forced to
move away to get its need met.
• Competition may be between the same spices; like
dogs, cats, and bears compete for territory, or mates.
• Competition may be between different spices; like
rabbits, and mice in desert may fight for food plants.
 Competition Among plants
• Kudzu is a vine plant that first introduced to USA in the
mid-1880s.
• When it compete with other plants for sunlight it wins.
• The vines quickly grows and cover other plants,
preventing them from getting sunlight.
• Since plants cannot move away, they will die.
• Plants may also compete for water.
• Plants with larger root system will absorb water first.
 Symbiosis-Living Together

• Symbiosis is a long-term relationships between species.

• In this relationship one of the species is always helped,
the other might helped, harmed, or not affected at all.
• Example: the buffalo and cattle egret.
• In this relationship the egret helped. But the buffalo
neither helped nor harmed.
• As the buffalo grazes, the hiding insects start to fly.
Then the bird can easily feed on these moving insects.
• The egret may also eat the insects off the back of the
buffalo.
Symbiosis-helpful or harmful

• Second type of symbiosis is the relationship between the

buffalo and the microorganisms in its digestive system.
• In this relationship both species are helped.
• The microorganisms have a meal and the buffalo can digest
grass and leaves.
 Symbiosis-helpful or harmful

• Third type of symbiosis is the relationship between the

buffalo and parasites.
• A parasites is an organism that feeds off another
organism, called a host.
• Some of them are worms that live in the buffalo’s
intestine or blood stream.
• So they eat food before it gets to the buffalo’s cells.
• They might take oxygen from the buffalo’s blood.
• Parasites can make the buffalo weak and sick.
Symbiosis-helpful or harmful

• Another type of symbiosis is the relationship between

the fungus and algae (or plant like bacteria). Together
they form the lichen.
• In this relationship the fungus is not just helped, but
rather it needs the algae in order to live.
• The algae or bacteria make food from sunlight.
• The fungus survive by getting some of these food.
• And the fungus gives the algae or bacteria a safe home.
Symbiosis Song (A lullaby for parasites).mp4