Each moose steers toward the nearest still-active forage patch and feeds while inside its radius, restoring energy at a rate set by plant nutrition; a heavily grazed patch shrinks and goes dormant for a cooldown before it regrows, so patches empty faster than they refill once a herd concentrates on a small area:
energy' = +feedRate·nutrition (while inside an active patch)
energy' = −baseMetabolism (otherwise, always)
speed = maxSpeed · (1 − bogDrag(x,y)·difficulty)
Scattered mud patches apply a bog drag multiplier to speed while a moose is inside one — the higher the bog difficulty slider, the more crossing wet ground costs in lost time and energy, so a herd pinned in a difficult wetland spends more of its budget just moving and less feeding. Raising forage patches spreads the herd out and reduces competition for any one patch; raising moose without adding patches concentrates grazing pressure and empties patches faster than they can regrow.
- Moose — herd size sharing the same patch pool.
- Bog difficulty — how much boggy ground slows movement.
- Plant nutrition — how much energy a feeding moose regains per second on an active patch.
- Forage patches — how many feeding sites exist in the wetland.