Understanding Ecological Dynamics Through Wildlife Simulation

What is an Ecological Web?

An ecological web represents the intricate relationships between living organisms and their physical environment. It includes food chains, food webs, energy flow, and nutrient cycling.

In this simulation, you can observe how different species interact with each other and their environment through feeding behaviors, predation, and competition.

Key Concepts in Ecological Dynamics

Kleiber's Law describes the relationship between an organism’s metabolic rate and its body size. In this simulation, you can see how different species have varying energy budgets based on their body sizes.

Grazing dynamics are crucial for maintaining grass populations. The logistic growth model is used to simulate the balance between grass production and consumption by herbivores.

Predation and Evolution

Predator-prey relationships drive natural selection, leading to evolutionary adaptations over time. In the simulation, you can observe how wolf packs evolve hunting strategies and stag populations adapt their behaviors.

The evolution lab allows you to manipulate genetic traits of species and see the effects on population dynamics.

Seasonal and Weather Effects

Weather conditions and seasonal changes significantly impact wildlife behavior. In this simulation, you can observe how temperature, precipitation, and daylight hours affect animal activities.

The food-web dashboard provides real-time data on energy flow between trophic levels, helping you understand the ecological impacts of environmental fluctuations.

Frequently asked questions

Try it live

Everything above runs in your browser — open Wildlife Simulator: Forest Valley with Seven Biomes, Stag, Wolf Pack, Grizzly at the Falls, Food Web, Evolution Lab and Photo Mode and change the parameters while it is running. Nothing is installed, nothing is uploaded, the whole model lives in one tab.