Natural selection – rabbit population, mutations, wolves and food
BiologyEvolutionAges 17–18
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Sign in to playA rabbit population breeds over many generations: each rabbit carries two alleles of every gene (fur colour, ear shape, teeth), mates at random and passes alleles to its offspring by Mendel's laws. The Intro screen starts from a single rabbit: add a mate, introduce a white-fur mutation, then release wolves on a snowy or brown-earth background. The Lab screen has three genes, lets you make the mutant allele dominant or recessive, offers three selection factors (wolves, tough food, limited food) and shows population graphs, phenotype proportions, allele frequencies across generations and each rabbit's pedigree. Based on the "Natural Selection" simulation by PhET Interactive Simulations, University of Colorado Boulder (CC BY 4.0); rewritten.
Lesson: Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection
How to use
Parameters you can change
- Starting screen Intro, Lab
- Environment Arctic (white snow), Equator (brown earth)
- Wolves present
- Tough food (Lab screen)
- Limited food (Lab screen)
- Starting number of rabbits (Lab screen) 2–30 rabbits
- Selection pressure (Lab screen) 0.2–1
- Mutant allele is dominant (Lab screen)
- Random seed (0 = new random run each time) 0–2147483647
