25 Apr Describe an interaction between 2 or more wild (no pets, humans, or domesticated plants or animals) species that you observed THIS WEEK or for which you personally observed some evidence

Describe an interaction between 2 or more wild (no pets, humans, or domesticated plants or animals) species that you observed THIS WEEK or for which you personally observed some evidence of an interaction – embed the photo you took.  This needs to be your own observation, not something you read about.  Document what you observed with at least one photo.  Provide both the date and location where you observed this.

*Date photo taken: 04/22/24 (uploaded file)

*Location were observed: Laguna Creek Trail in front of my home.

Discuss what category the interaction best fits in, including a discussion of other possibilities if likely (as in example above).  

Ecology deals with the ways that species interact with each other and their physical environment.  In dealing with interactions BETWEEN different species, we typically discuss: competition for limited resources, predator/prey interactions, parasite/host interactions, mutually beneficial interactions = mutualism, and interactions where one species benefits and the other is unaffected = commensalism.

This discussion asks you to look outside more closely than you perhaps usually do and find evidence of, or an actual example of, some type of interaction between two different species (these 2 species should NOT include humans or any domesticated animals). Walk around and look for 2 species interacting with one another (a bird chasing a squirrel, a bee pollinating a plant, a spider catching an insect, ….).

You need to  post a photo or photos that you took this week showing the interaction – ONLY post your own photos, NOT photos from the internet.

Here is an example from a walk I took recently along the American River here in Sacramento:  A spider had folded down the edges of a leaf and sealed them together with sticky silk, forming a little “house” – when I opened it up (yes, quite rude of me), you could see the spider and its egg sac inside.  This could probably be best described as commensalism:  the spider benefits from the plant because it provides it a sheltered home but the plant is not strongly affected, either in a positive or negative way.  It is possible that the folding of the leaf slightly reduced the plant’s ability to photosynthesize, so there might be a slight negative effect on the plant.  On the other hand, it is possible that, now in residence, the spider eats insects that feed on the plant, so that this is more accurately mutualism.