The Tasmanian Devil is the world's largest surviving carnivorous marsupial, and is found only in Tasmania, Australia. In recent years the Devil has been struck by a facial tumour disease that is spread by contact.  Tasmanian devils with the disease usually die within three to eight months of the lesions first appearing.  The disease first appeared in 1996 and is now threatening to wipe out the entire population.  You can read more about Devils and the disease here: http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/wildlife/mammals/devil.html

In this tutorial we are going to use Starlogo TNG to create a simple model of the spreading of the disease.  Our model will follow these rules:

• Devils move around randomly within their own territory.
• The disease is spread by one devil contacting another.
• The disease causes devils to weaken and eventually die.

The tutorial will show you how to use Starlogo TNG to create a model for the spread of the Devil Facial Tumour Disease. Complete each of the sections Setting Up, Infection, Territories and Varying the Model.

This page has been produced by Margaret Meijers.  Questions or feedback may be directed by email to mmeijers at ictmindtools.net

 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 License.
Attribution should include the statement: "This has been adapted from a resource originally created by Margaret Meijers at http://ictmindtools.net"