What is a Community? What are some characteristics?
A group of people or animals living in the same place with similar characteristics is a community. Some other populations that live with the lions are Zebras, Antelope, and Cheetahs.
To excel in inter-specific competition or to simply defend itself, organisms can gain the ability of camouflage, which is the use of coloration to either make an animal harder to spot, or just to mimic a more dangerous animal. As seen to the left, a zebra has white and black stripes in order to mimic a shadow and be concealed. This helps the zebra because it keeps it "in the shadows" and away from dangerous predators such as the cheetah.
Mutualism is when two organisms benefit each other. Sometimes they do it unknowingly and sometimes it is on purpose. One example would be the Rhino. Birds sit on the back of Rhinos and pick flees and ticks off of them for food. This benefits the Rhino because he wont have flees and ticks on him and it benefits the birds because they get food.
Inter-specific competition is competition in a community between different species. An example of this type of competition is when hyenas and lions fight for food. As displayed in the picture, the lion is normally the dominant species, and its intimidating a whole pack of hyenas.
An example of mimicry in the grasslands is displayed by the coral snake/milk snake relationship. The milk snake is a very poisonous snake, and the coral snake tries to imitate the milk snake in order to frighten predators and trick them into believing that it is dangerous.
An invasive species is an organism that causes ecological or economic harm in a new environment where it is not native. Some characteristics of an invasive species are that it normally has very rapid growth and a rather short life cycle. This makes it able to reproduce a lot and spread its species throughout an ecosystem VERY quickly. Mimosa is a plant species that is native to Asia and came to the United States. It thrives in habitats such as streams, old fields, and road sides. It is difficult to remove and had long living seeds that re-sprout vigorously. Invasive species in the grassland biome are often plants and the impact they have on native species is great. They often take the resources needed by native species, such as rich soil and open grounds. Again, an example of this is Mimosa.