Scramble competition

Scramble competition is also defined as "[a] finite resource [that] is shared equally amongst the competitors so that the quantity of food per individual declines with increasing population density".

Researchers recognize two main forms of intraspecific competition, where members of a species are all using a shared resource in short supply.

Contest competition sets up a situation where "each successful competitor obtains all resources it requires for survival or reproduction".

[1] Here "contest" refers to the fact that physical action plays an active role in securing the resource.

[4] These two processes can be evolutionarily adopted and they can also be accidental, which makes sense given the aggressive competition and collaborative cooperation aspects of social behavior in humans and animals.

[4] To date, few studies have looked at the interplay between contest and scramble competition, despite the fact that they do not occur in isolation.

[4] For example, the more time that an individual spends seeking food and reproduction opportunities, the less energy that organism naturally has to defend oneself against predators, resulting in a "zero-sum game".

For example, male mourning cloak butterflies will fly around in search for widely dispersed females.

[12] Another example of scramble competition exists in Lactrodectus hesperus, the western black widow spider.

There is a male-bias or skew within the sexually active population of this species, which means that females are a finite "resource".