An alternating active-dormitive strategy enables disadvantaged prey to outcompete the perennially active prey through Parrondo's paradox.

We show that dormancy can be an effective adaptive strategy to outcompete superior prey, recapitulating the game-theoretic Parrondo's paradox, where two losing strategies combine to achieve a winning outcome. We suggest that the species with the ability to switch between the active and dormant forms can dominate communities via competitive exclusion.