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One of the most fascinating things about the animals and plants that occupy any given area is the way in which they have adapted to survive in the varying climates and habitats of the world. Plants that could otherwise survive being transplanted from the tropics to Canmore may refuse to bloom merely because the days are too long. They are specifically adapted to bloom during the shorter days of the lower latitudes. Most plants and animals have adapted to fill very specific roles in their local environments and as such are able to survive where other newcomers may not.

The roles occupied by animals can be extremely specific. These are determined by millions of years of adaptation and change to suit their particular environments. Darwin brought this to the worlds attention after his voyage on the Beagle. In the Galapagos he noticed that although the only birds were finches, they had adapted to fill an incredible variety of roles on those islands. With each feeding on a specific type of food a larger variety of birds was able to survive.

The study of islands is indeed the best way to see how animals have developed these "niches" or roles within their world. In many cases the largest and smallest individuals of a species will occur on islands. The reason for this can be seen in the fact that upon arrival on an island, the animal is forced to adapt to a new collection of residents. The Komodo Dragon on Komodo Island is the largest lizard in the world. Why is it so large? When it arrived on this isolated island, there were no large carnivores and so it slowly adapted to fill this role.

On a more local scale there are many great examples of animal occupations. The brown creeper and the red-breasted nuthatch are two local birds that, on first glance, seem to be competing for the same food sources. They look for insects and grubs behind the bark of spruce and pine trees. According to the tenet "survival of the fittest" they shouldn't be able to compete on equal terms--one should displace the other. However if you look very closely, you can see a slight difference in their feeding preference. The nuthatch always starts at the top of the tree and works its way down the trunk while the creeper does exactly the opposite. He begins near the base and works upward in a spiral motion. As a result, one finds the insects under the top part of the bark and the other under the bottom.

This is a great example of two species developing very specific roles. Without such specificity they would not be able to live side by side. So although Darwin's survival of the fittest does work, it is often modified in such a way that animals will adapt to fill those niches that are not presently occupied by previous residents.