Reference no: EM131409689

Scientists continue to search for effective measures to restrain cane toad populations. Dr. Rick Shine, a biologist at the University of Sydney, and his colleagues are experimenting with various control measures. One of Professor Shine's honor students, Georgia Ward-Fear, has come upon a remarkable possibility. Toadlets of this species, unlike those of other anuran species, are active by day. To avoid desiccation, they conine themselves to the areas around water, which a species of meat ant (Iridomyrmex reburrus) favors for foraging. Most other species of young frogs hop away to avoid ants-but not cane toadlets. Their ancestors never had to deal with such large, predatory ants, so the escape behavior has not evolved. Thus, the toadlets often provide a nutritious morsel for the ants, and these predators successfully reduce the young toad population (up to 90%; Ward-Fear et al. 2009). Develop a simulation that contains a grid with water, land, toadlets, and meat ants. The toadlets can stay where they are or move in random directions, but they stay close to or in water. Meat ants remain on land. Assume that when a meat ant is adjacent to a toadlet on land, with a certain probability the ant "eats" the toadlet, that is, the toadlet disappears from the simulation. Perform an animation of the simulation, and plot the number of toadlets versus time.