In ecology, a feeding frenzy is a type of animal group activity that occurs when are overwhelmed by the amount of prey available. The term is also used as an idiom in the English language.
Examples in nature
For example, a large school of fish can cause nearby
, such as the
lemon shark, to enter into a feeding frenzy.
This can cause the sharks to go wild, biting anything that moves, including each other or anything else within biting range. Another functional explanation for feeding frenzy is competition amongst predators.
[Staddon. Adaptive Behavior and Learning. Foraging and Behavioral Ecology. Retrieved from: http://psychandneuro.duke.edu/uploads/assets/Chapter09.pdf ] This term is most often used when referring to sharks or
.
English language uses
It has also been used as a term within
journalism.
[ Feeding frenzy:how attack journalism has transformed American politics, Sabato, Larry., Macmillan., 1991]
The term is occasionally used to describe a plethora of something. For instance, a 2016 Bloomberg News article is entitled: "March Madness Is a Fantasy Sports Feeding Frenzy."
See also
