5 ms·
It’s outright predation, which is a little different. The idea here is that the Brown Widows aren’t eating the Black Widows’ food sources, or otherwise infringi
by tomtheelder 4y ago
It’s outright predation, which is a little different. The idea here is that the Brown Widows aren’t eating the Black Widows’ food sources, or otherwise infringing on their niche- they are just straight up eating them.
Like you wouldn’t describe us as “outcompeting” Bluefin Tuna, but we are doing our best to drive them to extinction by eating them.
- thaumasiotes 4y agoIf one Maori tribe wins a battle with another tribe, occupies its territory, and eats the slain losers, would we describe that as "competition" or "predation"? We don't describe ourselves as "outcompeting" tuna because they don't have anything we want. But the brown widows are infringing on the black widows' niche; they are specifically described as occupying the territory they're removing the black widows from and it's a safe bet that, with their webs in the same places, they're eating the same things. The human population of the ocean remains at zero.
- watwut 4y agoThese are biological terms and mean things. Outcompeting means something else then predation. Maori example falls into politics and the words to be used there would be war, genocide and cannibalism. Not quite predation either, because despite eating then, it is unlikely the whole thing was purely about food. On the other hand, spiders don't go to wars, they do not coordinate nor make plans.