ecological niche
Americannoun
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Different organisms may compete for the same niche. For example, in a forest there may be a niche for an organism that can fly and eat nectar from blossoms. This niche may be filled by some sort of bird, or an insect, or even a mammal such as a bat.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The terror birds, which out-competed the mammals in occupying this particular ecological niche, may even have driven mammalian predators to take to the forests instead.
From Salon ● Feb. 25, 2025
The juvenile tyrannosaurs, it seems, had taken over that ecological niche.
From National Geographic ● Dec. 8, 2023
This suggests a possibility that the first human range expansion into Eurasia was accompanied and potentially even enabled by the expansion of human ecological niche.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 9, 2023
Hopefully some possible futures include an ecological niche for humans.
From Scientific American ● Nov. 7, 2023
He says that when a species becomes extinct, some other species moves in to fill up the ecological niche, because Nature abhors a vacuum.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
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