Skip to main content

Partitioning by Time

You recorded the time of day for each animal observation. Based on these data shown in the table, make a claim about whether different species forage mostly at different times and therefore might partition their niches by time.

Time of animal observations. Each tally mark indicates an animal that was observed at a particular time of day.
Animal Morning Mid-day Evening Night

Dik-dik		 10 0 7 3

Grevy's zebra		 7 0 11 2

Impala		 8 0 7 3

Cape Buffalo		 4 0 3 8

Notebook

Your answers
Hint for answer A: If species partition niches according to foraging time, the data might look something like the table below. Based on these data, each species forages at a different time.
Animal Morning Mid-day Evening Night
Dik-dik 8 0 0 0
Grevy's zebra 0 0 7 0
Impala 0 9 0 0
Cape Buffalo 0 0 0 8
Hint for answer B: If species do not partition niches according to foraging time, then the data might look more like the table below. Here, there is overlap between the foraging times of different species.
Animal Morning Mid-day Evening Night
Dik-dik 3 0 2 1
Grevy's zebra 3 0 4 2
Impala 4 3 2 0
Cape Buffalo 2 2 3 7

In the space below, justify your claim above using evidence.