  Chaotic dynamical systems with two or more attractors lying on invariant
subspaces may, provided certain mathematical conditions are fulfilled, exhibit
intermingled basins of attraction: Each basin is riddled with holes belonging
to basins of the other attractors. In order to investigate the occurrence of
such phenomenon in dynamical systems of ecological interest (two-species
competition with extinction) we have characterized quantitatively the
intermingled basins using periodic-orbit theory and scaling laws. The latter
results agree with a theoretical prediction from a stochastic model, and also
with an exact result for the scaling exponent we derived for the specific class
of models investigated. We discuss the consequences of the scaling laws in
terms of the predictability of a final state (extinction of either species) in
an ecological experiment.
