I made an evolution simulator and observed that when a marginally competent predator appears, it quickly multiplies and hunts down all of the prey animals, which leads to their own extinction soon after. This seem unlike the real world.
About the simulator
The animals are controlled by neural networks, herbivores must consume spontaneously generated food particles to obtain energy, predators can sap energy out of a prey without killing it, but this significantly hinders the prey's well-being. Animals reproduce asexually with mutations.
There are about 50 animals when the predator appears. All herbivores tend to resemble one another.
The ideal result
This simulator was initially meant to explore the development of individual organism through evolution, but the phenomenon I observed made me aware of the importance of whole ecosystems. I want a modified simulator to produce a ecosystems with multiple niches and stable final state, in short, I want biodiversity.
Some proposed modification
- Add different habitats: different habitats vary in naturally spawned food particle, and their difference can be detected by the animals
- larger population
- arbitrarily increase the reproductive period of predators (?)