Labs / Biology
Predator & Prey
Grass grows, rabbits (dots) eat grass, foxes (orange) hunt rabbits. Nobody is in charge — every animal just wanders, eats, breeds, and starves by simple rules. The graph below the field tracks both populations. Click the field to release rabbits where you clicked.
Rabbits 180Foxes 10
What to try
- Just watch for a minute. Do the rabbit and fox lines rise and fall together, or does one lag the other? Why?
- Add a burst of foxes. What happens to the rabbits — and then what happens to the foxes?
- Turn grass regrowth down to a trickle. How many rabbits can the field support now?
- Try to make the foxes go extinct without touching them directly.
- After a crash, can the ecosystem recover on its own, or does it need a rescue from you?