Population and Natural Selection

Food Chain

Studying Populations: Who will survive?

The Model

Coyote (Cardboard)

• Eats rabbits• Needs to eat two

rabbits each round to survive

• Moves faster to catch enough rabbits

Rabbit (Bean)

• Eats vegetation (rice)• Needs to eat one

carrot each round to survive

• Camouflages to avoid being eaten

Survival

White rabbits camouflage on white and pink spaces

Red rabbits camouflage on red and pink spaces

Black rabbits camouflage on black spaces

1- Level 1 coyotes will leave one of the available rabbits

2- Level 2 coyotes will leave two of the available rabbits

3- Level 3 coyotes will leave four of the available rabbits, but they can eat red camouflaged rabbits

Each round, coyotes will randomly eat up to four rabbits if they can, and the remaining rabbits will each eat one carrot if available. If there isn’t enough food for a particular animal, they starve and die.

After eating/dying, animals reproduce themselves. Each surviving animal makes one new copy of itself (doubles). Add 3 new plants to each space. Randomly redistribute animals to spaces.

If populations go extinct in one area, have other animals migrate from neighboring areas.

Examples

1- Level 1 coyotes will leave one of the available rabbits

2 Red rabbits are visible on the white space

1 Black rabbit is visible on one of the pink spaces

Coyote randomly eats two of the visible rabbits, leaving one.

Remaining 6 rabbits eat 1 carrot each

Populations double, add 3 new carrots to each space

Record and graph data

Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 40

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

White RabbitsRed RabbitsBlack Rabbits