At the base of a large pit in the mountains of the Cascade Range, surrounded by 360-degrees of tall, steep rock wall, there lived a small bale of pond turtles.
Allowing the turtles to stay alive, at the base, water regularly seeped up from an aquifer and formed into little pools that they could drink from.
A small amount of various vegetation and insects shared the pit as well, which they could eat from.
Although this kept most alive, the turtles suffered because of their condition.
Resources weren't necessarily limited but competition that formed around them often rendered them limited.
Generally, at best, they were uncomfortable, constantly oscillating into hunger and thirst, hot or cold, bored or anxious.
The turtles often fought with each other.
They often got sick.
All eventually in some respect, all eventually dying, the surviving forced to watch.
They all felt trapped, caught in this pit of misery with nothing to ever fully satiate their desires and free them from their pains.