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Island Tameness: Naive vs Wary Prey Simulator

Introduce an identical novel predator to an isolated island population that never evolved anti-predator behavior and to a mainland population that evolved under constant predation pressure — watch one population collapse toward extinction while the other sustains losses and persists, with a live side-by-side population chart.

Ecology & Conservation Biology3DModerate60 FPS

Compare two prey populations exposed to the exact same introduced predator at the exact same moment. The island population evolved in isolation with little or no predation pressure, so it never developed a flight response, effective camouflage or a fast reproductive rate — those traits are costly to maintain and were never selected for. The mainland population evolved alongside a full community of predators, so it actively detects and flees the newcomer and reproduces quickly enough to offset losses. Press "Introduce predator" and watch how identical predation pressure produces a population collapse on one side and a sustained, recovering population on the other — the mechanism behind real-world extinctions of island birds and reptiles after rats, cats or snakes were introduced.

⚙ Under the hood

Introduce an identical novel predator to an island population that never evolved anti-predator behavior and a mainland population that evolved under constant predation pressure, and watch the naive island population collapse toward extinction while the wary mainland population sustains losses and persists, tracked on a live side-by-side population chart.

invasive speciesisland biogeographyisland tamenessanti-predator behaviorpredator-prey dynamicspopulation collapseconservation biology

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install