Demo Dozen

 

GAME MANAGEMENT ON THE KAIBAB PLATEAU

 

Welcome to the Kaibab Plateau during the early 1900's.  Game and range management are in their infancy and the United States government has sent you to this semiarid plateau north of the Grand Canyon to manage the strong and often competing desires of several politically influential groups: 1) RANCHERS wishing to graze maximum herds with minimum competition from other grazers (deer) and from the natural predators of the area (coyotes);  2)  HUNTERS wishing to maximize the sport opportunities (deer hunting); and 3)  ENVIRONMENTALISTS (really not too significant in the early 1900's, but brought in here for current relevance) desiring as pristine a natural environment as possible, given the other constraints on the system (e.g., the government's mandate for "multiple use" management of the land).

 

Can You Manage Such a Predator-Prey System?

 

In this simulation you will devise and implement a management scheme to achieve your objectives.  You have three management tools available to you:  providing supplemental deer feeding, selling deer-hunting tags (licenses), and paying predator bounties.

 

Below is output from the simulation for one management scenario, in which massive, and perhaps undesirable, changes take place in all the populations. Ideally, your efforts will be more successful!