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Bird Bills and Feeding Strategies “Competitive, Interaction, Simulations” Problem: How are differences in the success of different bill types related to the food item being gathered? Research: “Ecological Principles or Generalizations” Principle of Competitive Exclusion - No two kinds of organisms can have exactly the same resource needs and live at the same place at the same time and coexist. Law of Adaptation - “Both individuals and species adapt to their environment. Individuals make behavioral adjustments. Species make genetic adjustments which lead to species specialization and species diversity.” “A diverse ecosystem can support a larger number of organisms than a less diverse ecosystem. Diversity is an indication of ecosystem health.” Natural Selection - Ecological Principles “Differences in size or shape can be shown to have different fitness in some environments.” “Fitness can be defined for predators as requiring a minimum number of food items for reproduction at 0, 1, 2, or 3 per individual per generation.” “For prey, survival permits maximum reproduction at the end of each generation.”