ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overl ...

, a feeding frenzy occurs when

predator Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill t ...

s are overwhelmed by the amount of

prey Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill ...

available. The term is also used as an

idiom An idiom is a phrase or expression that typically presents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to the phrase; but some phrases become figurative idioms while retaining the literal meaning of the phrase. Categorized as formulaic language ...

in the English language.

Examples in nature

For example, a large school of fish can cause nearby

shark Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachi ...

s, such as the

lemon shark The lemon shark (''Negaprion brevirostris'') is a species of shark from the family Carcharhinidae and is classified as a Vulnerable species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Lemon sharks can grow to in length. They are ...

, 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

piranha A piranha or piraña (, , or ; or , ) is one of a number of freshwater fish in the family Serrasalmidae, or the subfamily Serrasalminae within the tetra family, Characidae in order Characiformes. These fish inhabit South American rivers, f ...

English language uses

It has also been used as a term within

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the " news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (p ...

. Feeding frenzy:how attack journalism has transformed American politics, Sabato, Larry., Macmillan., 1991
/ref> The term is occasionally used to describe a

plethora {{Short pages monitor