Week 3: Ecosystem

This is going to be a blog in two parts. The third week, the class learned about the ecosystem. I have to admit I was rather confused by several definitions of ecosystem, ecological niche, habitat...they all seemed similar. Habitat is more of a living are, but a much broader definition is ecological niche, which describes the role species plays in that certain habitat...if I'm correct. Anyway I have week 3 questions, the second question will be in another post coming shortly after.

Week3:

1) Describe 2-3 examples of specific species interactions that you observed.

I'm not certain if this would count as species interaction, however I'll give this as an example because it's between species. This is the most obvious and easy, the interaction between a domestic dog and a squirrel or a rabbit. A domestic dog and a squirrel have a predator to prey interaction, since the dog is keen on "hunting" the squirrel; however he is sometimes restrained by his owner not to chase after the squirrel. This has happened with me several times, whenever my dog, Desiree could sense a wild rabbit, she would tug on the leash and pursue it. Even though dogs and cats have been domesticated by humans, they still have certain characteristics and instincts of their own genus. There have been many relative concerns about letting domestic cats outside because some people are concerned that cats may be hunting songbirds and decreasing the number of songbirds in communities. There is a right to be concerned, ironically my cat goes out as well, but he is still declawed. He will however still pursue a bird if he could.
Bird feeders are an excellent place to watch interactions between birds. I have seen that when there is a pileated woodpecker at the bird feeder eating suet, there are not many songbirds around. My guess would be because of his size, the woodpecker is quite dominant.
I have also heard on National Public Radio somone talking about frogs. The expertise said that frogs/toad (I forgot which) will make a sound primarily to attract a mate, however if he senses that there are other male frogs, he will make a different call mostly to warn others of his own male species to stay out of his territory (I believe this is what the person said, more or less).
Birds also make calls for different reasons, such as driving other birds away or to attract females. These calls, my guess are hard to discern unless one has expertise in ornithology or a bird enthousiast.
The last two examples are examples of interspecific competition between members of their own species, for mate or to drive out others from their own territory.
Even though I haven't 'seen' these examples, I have included them since they are examples of species interaction.

There is another blog shortly after.