Simulating meerkat behaviour
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Date
2019-06
Authors
Zuyyin Hazwani Binti Zainal
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Abstract
Behaviour can be defined as the change in organism activities in response
to a stimulus, an internal or external cue or a combo of cues. Animal behaviour
includes the ways of animals interact with other members of their species, other
organisms of other species and their physical environment. Behaviours are mostly
learned or developed through experiences, but some behaviours are genetically
hardwired or innate. Behaviours are not only important to animals, but they also
play a critical role in biological adaptations. In this research project, meerkat
behaviours are observed and their foraging behaviour is chosen and simulated in
an agent-based modelling platform. Before the modelling could be done, the
foraging behaviour of the meerkats is studied to fully understand their behaviour.
The modelling designed included the number of groups form, dividing the task
among the members of the group, and the procedure of each task that needed to be
done. In conclusion, the model will simulate the behaviour of the meerkats foraging
for food to survive in its habitat. The simulations were run in 2 cases where these
cases are further divided into 3 cases each which in total 6 cases. For each case, the
simulation run 10 times. Where the results were analyzed and graphs were plotted
using the average of the results.