SeasonSpring

Time0:00

Herbivores0

Predators0

Plants0%

Herbivore Predator Plant cover

Inspector Nothing selected

Pick the Inspect tool and click an animal to read its genome and follow it.

Wheel to zoom · right-drag or Shift-drag to pan · double-click resets view · Space pauses

Ecosystem Lab

Plants grow with soil, water and season. Herbivores graze, predators hunt, and every newborn carries a slightly mutated genome. Survival does the selecting.

Simulation speed 1×

Seed

Brush & tools drag on the world

Brush size 4 cells

Parameters

Mutation rate 0.30 Plant growth 1.0× Predator hunger 1.0× Season length 40 s

Climate events

Random climate events

Population over time

HerbivoresPredatorsPlant energy (scaled)

Predator–prey phase plot Lotka–Volterra

Trait evolution mean, normalised to range

Gene pool distribution now

Food web & energy

Alerts & events

No events yet.

How it works

Plants regrow logistically; the rate depends on soil fertility, closeness to water, season and climate. Deserts and mountains are poor, forests rich.
Herbivores carry a tiny steering brain (food drive, fear, herding, sprint). Predators weigh hunting, wandering, herd tracking and sprinting. Weights mutate along with speed, size, vision, metabolism, breeding threshold and colour.
Big, fast, sharp-eyed animals burn more energy. Forest hides prey, mountains slow everyone, and colour that matches the ground gives mild camouflage, so selection shapes every trait.
Try a Predator boom, then watch the Lotka–Volterra loop spiral in the phase plot. Trigger an ice age and see which genomes survive.

Simplified model, asexual reproduction with mutation. The same seed and the same actions reproduce the same run.