What is meant by struggle for existence and survival of the fittest? Explain with an appro priate example.

Explanation

Struggle for existence:
• The organisms living in a particular habitat face competition from the other organisms of same species as well as different species.
• The organisms belonging to the same species compete among themselves to a large extent because they have common basic necessities like food, shelter, breeding etc.
• Members belonging to different species also compete to some extent for food and shelter.

• All the organisms also experience struggle against the environmental factors such as drought, heavy rain, heat waves, cold waves, floods, etc.,
• Due to this struggle for existence faced by the organisms, the number of individuals of any species becomes restricted.
• Individuals of the same species also show lot of differences in the size, shape, colour, behavior etc., These are called variations.