Army Ant Living Bridge — Bridge Position Optimizer (2D)

Real army ant colonies (genus Eciton) build bridges out of their own linked bodies to cross gaps in the forest floor — and field studies have shown the bridges aren't static: the colony repositions them over time to shorten the crossing, balancing the labor cost of tying up workers in the span against the extra travel distance of reaching a shorter crossing point elsewhere. This 2D companion turns that trade-off into a readable simulation: the ravine's width changes along a horizontal offset axis, narrower on one side and wider on the other, so a shorter bridge at one position needs fewer linked ants but forces a longer sideways detour to reach it. Every few seconds the colony samples a nearby offset and keeps it only if it lowers total cost — occasionally accepting a slightly worse one, mirroring the stochastic exploration seen in the real insects — and the live panel tracks how many ants are locked into the bridge versus how many are free to forage. Toggling to night pulls the whole population into a clustering bivouac instead, since Eciton colonies build no permanent nest and rebuild themselves nightly out of their own bodies.