Name: Jesse Kazemir
Block: D
Date: Feb. 20th
Science 10 Digital Immersion: Predator Prey Investigation
In this activity, you will investigate animal relationships by simulating predator-prey relationships and graph your findings.
Materials
• 200 small (2 cm) red squares (each represents a prey animal)
• 12 large (8 cm) beige squares (each represents a predator)
• digital data table (Apple® Numbers©, Google® Doc Spreadsheet©, or Microsoft® Excel©)
What to Do
1. Working in a group of 3, decide who will control the prey animals, who will control the predators, and who will be the
data recorder. Create your 5b. Predator Prey Data table and line graph it.
2. Clear all other materials off a table. Construct a forest habitat as instructed by your teacher.
3. Read the following rules. You will need to refer back to them as you do the simulation.
• Controllers of prey animals and predators must stand 1 m from the habitat entrance when tossing the squares.
• When one half or more of a prey animal square is covered by a predator square, the prey animal has been
captured and is removed from the habitat.
• In each round, each predator that captures at least 3 prey animals survives.
• If fewer than 3 prey animals are captured, the predator dies and is removed from the habitat.
• In each round, each predator that captures at least 3 prey animals survives and reproduces (producing a new
generation). Therefore, 1 additional predator will be tossed into the habitat for every 3 prey animals caught.
• If all predators die, then a new predator is tossed into the habitat.
• The prey population doubles each generation, so if 10 prey animals survive, the next generation (round) starts
with 20 prey animals.
• The maximum carrying capacity of this forest habitat is 200 prey animals. (Carrying capacity is the ability of an
ecosystem to supply enough resources such as food, water, and shelter for continued survival.)
4. Begin the simulation. The prey animal controller tosses 3 prey animals into the habitat. The predator controller then
tosses 1 predator into the habitat at these prey animals.
5. Continue the simulation for 20 generations or until all the prey animals are captured. The data controller records all data
for each generation in the data table provided by your teacher.
6. Construct a graph with 2 lines using the data from the “Total Prey Animals” and “Total Predators”columns for each
generation. Label the x-axis from generations 1 through 20. Label the y-axis “Population Numbers.” Determine the intervals
you will use to plot the population numbers.
7. Use one colour of pencil to plot the points for the total prey animals. Use another colour of pencil to plot the points for
the total predators for each generation.
8. Connect the points to form the prey animals’ graph line. Use another colour of pencil to connect the points for the
predators’ graph line.
What Did You Find Out?
1. Describe the relationship between the prey and predator lines on your graph.
The population of the prey got bigger and bigger as there were no predators that were surviving. However, as soon as one
predator caught enough to survive and reproduce, the rising population of prey slowed down, and then as the predators
got to the maximum (12), the prey population rapidly decreased, and the prey became extinct. Shortly after the rapid
decline of the prey population, the predator population also decreased, and stayed at one predator per generation because
one of the rules was that there was always one predator at least.
2. Predict what the graph would look like after 12 generations if all the predators were lost to a disease.
After 12 generations of the prey rapidly increasing, there would probably be around 6,000 prey, with no predators to hunt
them.
3. Predict what the graph would look like after 12 generations if all the prey animals were lost to a disease.
After 12 generations of the predators trying to survive off of noting, there would be one predator per generation. This
wouldn’t happen in real life. In real life the predators, having nothing to survive on, would also become extinct. For the
purposes of this lab, however, the predators were not allowed to become extinct, so there would always only be one
predator.
4. Predict what would happen to the predator and prey populations if half of the prey animals’ habitat were destroyed by
the construction of a shopping mall.
If half of the prey animals’ habitat were destroyed, they would become extinct even faster, because the prey don’t have as
much area to run/hide from the predators. The predators would find it way easier to catch prey, because of the higher
population crammed into a smaller space.
5. Explain what would happen if all of the UVic ‘bunnies’ were eliminated? (that’s the pleasant word for slaughtered)
If all of the UVic ‘bunnies’ were eliminated, then coyotes around that area would either start to die out, because of the lack
of food, or they would relocate to somewhere with more food.
6. Coyotes have been poisoned in Coquitlam, what would happen in Port Coquitlam?
If all the coyotes were killed off in POCO, we would (possibly) be overrun with everything the coyotes would normally eat.
Some examples would be small rodents, some birds, and other small animals. Not having anything to control their
population (by killing them), they would rapidly multiply. This could become a huge problem.
7. Explain why it is against the municipal by-laws to put out your garbage until after 5:30am?
It is against municipal by-laws to put out your garbage until after 5:30 am because before 5:30 in the morning, hardly
anyone is outside. This means that there is no-one to bother any bears that might be roaming the streets. Bears will eat
any garbage if they find any, which is actually bad for them. They normally eat berries, roots, and other plants. Garbage
can cause disease, or other problems. If you put out garbage after 5:30, any bears that might have been walking around are
usually gone by then. This probably doesn’t only apply to bears, either. Raccoons also like to get into garbage, so this
probably applies to them as well as other animals, too.
8. Knowing the world’s population is approaching 7 billion what will it be like when this doubles?
Having 14 billion people on this world would be very weird. Your house would be half as big as it is now, because for every
person there is now, there would be two people then. There would be twice as many people at schools, malls, and stores.
Houses would have to be smaller, and everything else (stores, schools, etc.) would have to be bigger to accommodate
everyone. We would have to somehow get twice as much food, gas, electricity, and other supplies. I hope that by the time
our population approaches 14 billion, we would have begun to populate another planet, because I think the Earth won’t be
able to support all of us any longer.