Is the 'law of the jungle' about competing for scarce resources?

In the early days of biology as a science, the “law of the jungle” was defined through non-rigorous observations of individual living beings in their natural surroundings. Plants were seen as competing for water, nutrients and light, animals fighting for territory and food, and each one dining on others. Consequently, for a long time it was believed that the “law of the jungle” consisted of the fight for survival at the expense of other creatures that competed for the same resources in nature.

Inspired in this theory, many societies, particularly in the West, began to model their institutions and social structures based on that struggle, competition and rapacity, which was purportedly universal and necessary. Accordingly, the economy was organized as a competition to accumulate limited resources, politics became a struggle for power among parties, and so on.

However, with the birth of ecology as a science in the 1960s, for the first time humanity had the tools needed to study ecosystems systematically and scientifically. In order to test the traditional view of the “law of the jungle”, ecologists studied what happened when all members of one species were removed from a habitat. If the idea of competition for limited resources were true, the status of other species would improve. “The fewer the mouths, the more each receives.” However, the findings proved otherwise: removing a species had a negative impact, not only on the other species, but also on the health of the ecosystem as a whole. It was necessary to reintroduce the extracted species in order to recover the symbiotic balance.

The conclusion of these and other experiments has been that the real “law of the jungle” is cooperation and mutual support among all living beings. Therefore, if human life is to abide by the true “law of the jungle”, it is imperative to change our traditional behaviors and social structures to reflect the same principles of cooperation, reciprocal assistance, and mutual service that characterize our planet’s different ecosystems.

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