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Population Dynamics - BASIC

Key Concepts:
A population is known as the number of living things in a certain area, such as a number of bunnies living in a meadow. The ways in which the populations change with time (grow or shrink) are known as population dynamics. A population of bunnies, for instance, may grow because of a births, or arrival of bunnies from nearby meadows (migration). The population may shrink if they run out of food and leave, or if they die. The prey is the animal being eaten or hunted by another animal, such as the bunny who is eaten by the wolf. A predator is an animal that preys on another for food - such as a wolf, who enters the meadow and eats bunnies, (the bunny population will decrease). The predators populations also change with time, and they depend on the amount of bunnies in the meadow. This lab explores the population dynamics of wolves and bunnies that live in a meadow together.

Figure 1. The Meadow.

In this lab you will imitate how the populations of the wolves and bunnies will change over time depending on the growth of the other. This is to help you understand how population dynamics works and also occurs with other animals in nature. You could also think about the population dynamics in the human life, though as you can imagine, it is different from animals.

Population Dynamics Simulation

Materials
1. 2. 3. 4. One 11 x 17 sheet of paper: the meadow Thirty 2.5 x 2.5 gray paper squares: the wolves Seventy-Five 1 x 1 pink paper squares: the bunnies One box/container to hold the current wolves

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Setup: (This simulation requires three or more participants.)

The three necessary roles: wolf manager, bunny manager and data manager. The wolves (gray squares) will be randomly dropped onto the meadow (large sheet) covered in bunnies (pink squares) to represent wolves catching and eating bunnies, which is necessary for the wolves to survive and reproduce. This process will be repeated for 20 rounds, and in each round, a varying number of wolves will be dropped onto a varying population of bunnies. The populations of wolves and bunnies in each round will depend on the previous rounds results. We need to assume certain conditions for both species survival and reproduction. In this simulation, we will use the following assumptions:

A bunny does not survive if it is eaten by wolves (when a wolf partially covers that bunny after being thrown onto the meadow). A bunny reproduces (generates a single additional bunny in the next round) only if, after the entire population of wolves is thrown onto the meadow, it has not been eaten. But, once the bunny population reaches a total of 75, no more bunnies can reproduce. If no bunnies are left surviving after a round, three new bunnies repopulate the meadow by migration for the next round. A wolf does not survive if, after being thrown onto the meadow, it has eaten (is partially covering) two or less bunnies. A wolf reproduces if it eats 3 or more bunnies after a single throw into the meadow. It makes an additional wolf in the next round for every multiple of 3 bunnies that it is partially covering. (Example: 3 bunnies = 1 wolf, 6 bunnies = 2 wolves, 9 bunnies = 3 wolves, and so on). If no wolves survive a round, a single new wolf migrates to the meadow, and attempts to catch bunnies in the next round.

All of these assumptions are included in the calculations within the Excel workbook, LPCH Predator Prey 2009.xls, so you dont need to keep track of all the rules as you play. Simply follow the Specific Tasks outlined below.

Instructions:
Data Manager: Open the Microsoft Excel workbook LPCH Predator Prey 2009.xls. The Data Entry sheet should be displayed, with headings for each of the 20 round numbers displayed along the top row, above periodic yellow columns under the heading Bunnies Caught. These yellow columns will be the only cells you will be altering. Do not change any other cells, as they may affect the accuracy of the calculations this data sheet will be conducting. Bunny Manager: Toss 3 bunnies randomly (without aiming!) into the meadow. Arrange all the other bunnies in piles of 5 in front of you (off the meadow), to ease the counting of additional bunnies in future rounds. Wolf Manager: Place 1 wolf in the current wolves box.

Specific Tasks:
Data Manager:

StudentInstructions 1. Count the bunnies given to you by the Bunny Manager, and enter that amount in a cell in the YELLOW column, underneath the heading for the round you are currently playing. Fill in the rows from top to bottom within each round, entering a bunny count in a new row for every individual wolf of the round. 2. Wait for the Wolf Manager to tell you that the round has finished. 3. Read the amount of Bunnies to add underneath the heading for the NEXT round (e.g. if you were just entering data for Round 3, read Bunnies to add for Round 4). Tell the Bunny Manager to add that number of bunnies to the meadow. 4. Read the amount of Wolves to Start for the NEXT round. Tell the Wolf Manager to add that number of wolves to the box. 5. Repeat steps 1-4 for 20 rounds. Bunny Manager: 1. Wait for Wolf Manager to throw wolf randomly into meadow.
2. After every toss of a wolf, remove the bunnies that have been caught by that single wolf and give

them to Data Manager. If the data manager is busy entering data from previous wolves, you may place the bunnies in a pile next to him or her, but do not mix bunnies together that have been caught by different wolves arrange each collection of bunnies that has been caught by each wolf in separate piles. 3. Wait for the Data Manager to record the results and return the bunnies to you. 4. Take bunnies from Data Manager, arrange into piles of 5 as theyre handed to you 5. Once all the wolves have been thrown onto the meadow for a round, listen for the amount of Bunnies to add from the Data Manager. Add that amount of bunnies to the meadow, and disperse all the bunnies evenly across the meadow. 6. Tell the Wolf Manager that all the bunnies have been added and he/she can start throwing wolves into the meadow. 7. Repeat Steps 1-6 for 20 rounds

Wolf Manager: 1. Toss only one wolf from the current wolves box randomly (without aiming!) into the meadow from a height of about 2 feet above the meadow.
2. Remove the single wolf and note any bunnies it is partially covering. Make sure these bunnies are

removed by the Bunny Manager. 3. Place the wolf in the stockpile of wolves. 4. Repeat steps 1-3 until there are no more wolves in the current wolves box. 5. Tell the Data Manager that the round has ended.

StudentInstructions 6. Listen for the amount of Wolves to start from the Data Manager. Add that number of wolves to the current wolves box. 7. Repeat steps 1-6 for 20 rounds.

Concept Questions:
1. Open the sheet Results Plot in the Excel Workbook. This shows the populations of wolves and bunnies throughout the rounds. Either print out the plot that is shown, or describe and make a simple drawing of it.

2. What happens to the bunny population when the wolf population gets bigger? 3. What happens to the wolf population when the bunny population gets smaller? 4. Is the wolf population ever bigger than the bunny population? For how long? If this period of time is very short compared to the entire simulation, why do you think that is the case?

5. Which graph from below (a, b, c, or d) best represents the bunny population (if there are no predators, but there are unlimited resources)? Which one most closely represents the results of the simulation you just performed?

(a) Linear

(b) Logarithmic

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(c) Exponential

(d) Oscillating

6. In our simulation we chose to limit the total number of bunnies to 75. What might limit the bunny population in real life?

7. Look at the population plots generated by other groups in the class. Do their plots look the same as yours? In what ways, if any, are they different?

8. What do you think would happen to the wolves and the bunnies if you introduced an additional predator, such as a coyote, which required fewer bunnies to reproduce?

9. Do you think humans have predators? What kinds of things might limit our population?

10. We are predators. What kinds of things might we prey upon? (Think of our everyday lifestyle, like chicken for your barbecue, water when youre thirsty, trees for paper, etc.)

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References: Gatton, M. Predator-Prey Population Dynamics, Professional Performing Arts School, New York, NY. Adapted from: http://educ.queensu.ca/%7Escience/main/concept/biol/b11/B11LACG2.htm,