principle of exclusion and avoidance

The principle of competitive exclusion, also known as Gause's Law, states that two species competing for the same limited resources in the same ecological niche cannot coexist indefinitely. One species will inevitably outcompete the other, leading to the extinction or displacement of the less successful competitor.12

An ecological niche describes how a species interacts with its environment, including its habits and resource utilization. Natural selection favors specialized traits that allow a species to exploit resources effectively. However, the principle of competitive exclusion highlights that for coexistence, species must occupy distinct niches to avoid direct competition. This biological principle is distinct from the Pauli exclusion principle in physics, which concerns the quantum states of particles.34