Enviroments in Action: Bunny and Fox Interactions

In an attempt to shed light on the intricate balance and complexity of our environment, we have built a simulation to educate and understand just one aspect of the ecosystem in which we live.

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Inspiration

We were inspired by other simulations similar to this because they have always been able to make very complex situations and scenarios very understandable. Our ecosystem is very complex and being able to split it into more understandable rules and criteria for prey and predator helps us to better understand the relations animals have with other animals and that humans have with animals.

What it does

Our app allows the user to simulate animal populations to see how the prey-predator relationship works and remains in balance. A balance that is so easily disrupted by factors so small or seemingly unrelated that if not better understood could harm or even destroy our world

How we built it

We built our project using the Unity game engine using Git and GitHub for project management and team collaboration. Along with attempting to use GitHub-Workflows for CI/CD WebGL builds for deployment to GitHub pages.

Challenges we ran into

One challenge that we ran into was the number of detailed parameters that had to be finely tuned for a stable environment to be simulated. From distance a fox should be able to see a rabbit to the decay rates of hunger and thirst, the parameters though understood together combined to create a large and complex simulation.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Accomplishing a working simulation that was able to sustain a constant population of food sources, and prey and predator interactions, was an accomplishment our team is very proud of.

What we learned

We learned that the environment that we live in is many folds more complicated than what our simulation can show. And yet our simulation contains dozens of criteria that if not finely tuned result in a complete collapse of a life. Understanding this shows the importance that humans have in the impact we have on Earth.

What's next for The Bunnies and The Foxi

Continuing development our team would hope to add an infectioussystem that could show how polluted waters can lead to devastating effects on the environment. Other factors such as roadways and the impact that humans build structures can have on animals in that environment. Another facet that would be useful to explore would be a gene pool that could help us to understand how the genes of the animals that we release into the wild can drastically change the way they interact with that new ecosystem.

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