Predator & Prey Population vs. Time

     Our goal in this experiment was to see how predator and prey populations changed over a course of many generations in a few different environments. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to do more than one environmental situation. However, we can still analyze the data that we did get, and make a prediction for the data that we most likely would have gotten for the other locations.

http://uppun.deviantart.com/art/Wolf-and-rabbit-75129696

http://blogs.cofc.edu/american-novel/2012/11/16/as-rabbits-of-the-world/

Predator & Prey Population Data Table

Generation	Wolves	Rabbits	White	Light Green	Dark Green
1	1	3	1	1	1
2	0	4	0	2	2
3	0	6	0	2	4
4	0	10	0	2	8
5	0	16	0	2	14
6	0	30	0	4	26
7	2	46	0	8	38
8	4	60	0	12	48
9	8	66	0	10	56
10	14	44	0	2	42
11	20	8	0	2	6
12	1	3	1	1	1
13	0	4	0	2	2
14	0	6	0	2	4
15	0	8	0	2	6
16	0	12	0	4	8
17	2	18	0	6	12
18	4	20	0	8	12

Predator & Prey Population Line Graph

Analysis



Meadow

     For the meadow environment, we see that the Dark Green Rabbits continually had the highest population in every generation but one. This makes sense since the Dark Green Rabbits would have blended in the best to its surroundings, which were a dark green meadow. The fact that the Dark Green Rabbits became the most populated over time is due to natural selection, which states that a beneficial biological trait will become more common in a population, and a negative biological trait will become less common. In our experiment, both of the White Rabbits that migrated in to the meadow died within the first generation in which is migrated (the white rabbits that migrated to the meadow during generation 1 and 12 both died right away). This is because their trait of having white fur causes them to stick out in the dark green meadow, be spotted by wolves, and eaten. To the contrary, the dark green fur on the Dark Green Rabbits blended with the dark green meadow, causing them to become hard to spot, and less likely to be eaten. The Light Green Rabbits population was less than that of the Dark Green Rabbits, but more than that of the White Green Rabbits, because their light green fur made it harder for the wolves to spot them than to spot white fur, but easier for wolves to spot them compared to spotting dark green fur.

     As mentioned earlier, their was one generation in which the population of the Dark Green Rabbits was not the highest. In this generation, the 11th generation, the number of Wolves exceeded the number of not just the Dark Green Rabbits, but rather exceeded more than double the population of all of the three different colored rabbits combined. This certainly does not prove to be a favorable situation for the wolves, who need to eat 3 rabbits to survive and produce offspring. In the 11th generation, we see that all of the remaining rabbits were eaten by the wolves. This in effect caused all the wolves to die as well, because their were no longer any rabbits for them to eat. With all of the predators and prey dead, we had to wait for a new wolf and three new different colored rabbits to migrate into the meadow in order to form a 12th generation, which is the first generation that has no descendants from generation 1.

     Now that a new wolf and 3 rabbits migrated into the meadow and formed the 12th generation, a new population cycle occurs. Though it is a different cycle, you can see that the results are typically the same. The population of the Dark Green Rabbits increased at the highest rate, the Light Green Rabbits' population grew at a much slower rate, and the White Rabbits once again died off right away.

Snowy Area

http://wolfdreams.wordpress.com/2012/07/03/adrenal-dump/

     Though we did not actually perform this experiment, and therefore have no data, it can be predicted that the population of White Rabbits would increase at the highest rate, because their white fur would blend in with the white snow, and they would have a less likely chance of being eaten by the wolves (though the picture above shows a white rabbit being chased by a wolf, this would be the least likely rabbit to be hunted first, but would be the most hunted later because there will be so many of them, and so little of the other rabbits).

     If I had to make a hypothesis, I would predict that the Light Green Rabbits would be the most likely to go extinct immediately, because I think that the light green fur will be more visible to wolves than a dark green fur.




Light Green Environment


     If we had performed another experiment in an environment that is light green, I hypothesize that the population of the Light Green Rabbits would increase at the highest rate, the Dark Green Rabbits will increase population at a slow rate, and the White Rabbits will go extinct.






Conclusion


     Through this experiment, we saw several aspects of the predator-prey relationship in nature. The one thing that caught my eye, and that I have never thought of before, is that if the population of prey is really high, the predator population will increase rapidly, and in effect will cause both populations to rapidly decrease. This is because there will be so many wolves that the rabbit population will be nearly wiped out, and after the rabbit population is depleted, the wolves will starve and their population will too be depleted.