You'll Have to Fight for It (Easy version)

Possums compete for the same food as  tui

Every plant and animal needs food to live. But sometimes there isn't enough food to go around! This means that plants and animals have to compete for food. They also compete for other things like sunlight, water and a good place to live.

Have you ever won a prize for beating everyone else? This is what competition in nature is like too. Plants and animals fight against others to try to win the prize. The prize may be food, a sunny nest or a nice place to grow.

If there is not much food, competition will be very strong. It will be even stronger if lots of animals want the food. For example, there would be more competition if we gave your class two chocolate bars than if we gave your class 20 bars. If everyone in your school wanted the chocolate then there would really be a lot of competition!

What animals does the tui compete with?

Introduced wasps compete with tui for honeydew

Tui compete against each other. They also compete against other animals like wasps, rats and possums.

A hungry tui can be mean to other tui that are smaller or younger. Dominant tui are usually old males that have lived in the area for a long time. Tui often make a whirring noise when they fly to show how strong they are.

Tui also compete with the other bird species like stitchbirds and bellbirds. All of these birds eat the same plants. The tui is biggest and so it usually gets the best flowers.

Tui can even chase off birds that are bigger than them. But they usually cannot compete against a rat or a possum.

Tui also compete against wasps for food. Both tui and wasps eat honeydew. Sometimes wasps eat so much honeydew that there is none left for tui.