There is a world somewhere between reality and fiction. Although ignored by many, it is very real and so are those living in it. This forum is about the natural world. Here, wild animals will be heard and respected. The forum offers a glimpse into an unknown world as well as a room with a view on the present and the future. Anyone able to speak on behalf of those living in the emerald forest and the deep blue sea is invited to join.
(04-27-2019, 12:39 AM)smedz Wrote: Ah yes, and don't forget, another way predators coexist is to hunt at different times of the day. Example, cheetahs and painted dogs are diurnal animals while lions, leopards, and hyenas are night hunters. The cheetahs and dogs hunt during the day to avoid lions and hyenas.
Of course to avoid direct competition, animals adapt different type of strategies not only them, birds too employ different foraging time periods in a day and so on many kinds are there, Plants bloom or mature at different hours to avoid cross pollination/self pollination.
Where as Lion is usually more diurnal than other big cats, but when persecuted it adapts to being active at night and at twilight (crepuscular) or at dawn and dusk.
And in case of Tiger_lion gause competitive exclusion principle or gause principle didn't occur even they had identical niches (required identical resources and habitats) they would attempt to live in exactly the same area and would compete for exactly the same resources. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitio...erspecific) It is because they have adapted some strategy to avoid competitive exclusion. That's why they coexisted for many years in Eurasia.
Gaur and Banteng coexist despite their direct competition or niche overlap and being species of same genus. So, if animals don't adapt and coevolve (According to evolutionary theory, this competition within and between species for resources is important in natural selection) to figure out how to live and avoid direct competition with fellow natural competitors it results in exclusion or extinction of inferior or weaker competition, if not they can coexist.
They are many evolutionary strategies to mitigate competition like large amount of offspring or growth rate, efficient mechanism to utilize resources, different foraging timings or lifestyle etc., etc.., (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitio...strategies)
Oh yeah that's right! I remember reading about that in one of my Smithsonian books, thanks for the reminder. You're right, if competitors adapt some strategy to avoid competitive exclusion, they can live together just fine. They way lions and tigers did this sounds to be habitat selection. Lions ruled the open plains and dry forests while Tigers ruled the jungles and tall grasslands, that way they could avoid each other, hence why we don't have many accounts of the 2 animals fighting each other in the wild. So you can say that India, Iran, and the other countries with both animals were kingdoms with 2 kings.
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Tiger-Lion Coexistence in Eurasia between Middle Pleistocene and Holocene Epochs
