Populations, Reproduction, and Mutations

This scenario simulates how populations grow and mutations spread throughout a population. Users can initialize the number of animals and the range of their life spans. Overlapping animals (disregard gender for this population) will produce 0, 1, or 2 offspring with fixed probabilities of each outcome occuring. Each newborn has a small chance of acquiring a mutation. If a newborn does indeed acquire a mutation, then its color will be randomly generated, making these mutations visually trackable. (Offspring without a mutation are instantiated with the "average" color of their parents.) There is also a chance that a massive natural disaster will occur, killing all animals within a certain distance from the center of the disaster. Lastly, note that the enviornment has a carrying capacity of 200 animals.

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Tags: simulation demo with-source biology school day princeton

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