3 ms·

In the real world what prevents this outcome? Humans aside. Because it's uncommon. Ecosystem diversity? Pathogens?

• nitrogen 5y ago
  Sometimes the prey can hide?
• cwkoss 5y ago
  I think this probably happens sometimes in the real world. However, there usually aren't ecosystems with only two species. Most predators eat multiple prey species, so a predator may hunt the "easy" species to extinction leaving only the harder-to-hunt species remain, which causes the predator population to fall as only a subset of the predators are able to succeed in these harder conditions. Cicadas could be another example of a strategy to deal with prey-decimation - by only emerging every N years, food sources have time time to regenerate between cycles. Similarly, many large predators are nomadic - so as they reduce prey availability in one area, they choose to look elsewhere, giving the prey in that area time to recover. I think geography and terrain also helps a lot in the real world: prey is usually smaller than predators and thus has more hiding spots. Maybe I should have implemented a 'turtling' mode, where organisms could spend part of their time immobile and invulnerable, but also not gaining energy, as a way to prevent predation. I think sensory organs would still probably be necessary to make that strategy work.