Introduction.
Welcome to another action project for my steam class "Population." In unit 2 of population, we've been learning about the theory of evolution by Charles Darwin and natural selection. We also took time to study our own animals for a bit, I had personally chosen seagulls to write down data for. We were told to write about it's behavior and the physical characteristics of the animal we were researching, such as if you were able to tell if it was a female or a male based off of one look. In the case of the seagulls, it was literally down to a matter of size to determine its gender. After that idea was scrapped, we moved onto collecting two data sets. We did one of dogs and another of cats. I got lucky and ended up with the cat group out of random selection. At the time all we had to do was find the mean, median, mode, range, minimum, maximum, quartile one, quartile three, and the the interquartile range of that data plot. Along with make a box and whisker plot with it. I know like it sounds like a lot, but it really wasn't at the time. After that was settled, we were given three random places in the world that were either abandoned, isolated from humanity, or deserted. Our objective was to look at our selected animals (we were given a random number of specimen to work with out of the whole data set) and predict which one of them would thrive in the environment we were chosen. Hope you find my choice of writing style entertaining and not an eyesore, and I apologize for the long introduction.Rubber band Island and The Triumph of Cats.
About 10,000 years ago, a creature known as the “Africa wildcat” came into existence. Its physical traits are shared very closely with our domestic house cats today. Their main diet was feeding on rodents in the African Savannah, like mice and rabbits, which has carried on to how they ended up getting domesticated in the first place by humans.
Let’s skip up to present times; now we’ve got these cute and sometimes rude balls of fur that meow loudly when they’re hungry. Let’s say it’s 2019 and a bunch of British dudes (because we're in the UK in this story) decided to have a party on a cruise ship with a bunch of cats for some reason. The British dudes went crazy partying through the night until a really bad storm occurs and the waves start crashing, everything is going to hell and the ship crashes, party boys go flying out of the boat, and they’re now on a small island known as the Mullion Island AKA “The Rubberband Island.” The British guys might be dead but the cats sure aren’t. Specifically 7 cats, just for clarification.Runnin’ The Gauntlet
These specific amounts of cats are the population on the Rubberband island and now I shall begin explaining which traits shall be favored in this small island. The weather is cold, windy, and rarely will anybody be seeing a sunny day. Thin fur isn’t exactly a favored factor of the cruel Rubberband island. The only animals that these cats can eat are seagull as nothing else exists on this island. This means camouflage is going to be a highly valued trait in this island, the risk of being spotted by a bird is the difference between life and death for these cats. Black and gray fur is essential in an often foggy gray island with little sun. These are the physical traits that right now are severely valued in Rubberband Island. Now, the gauntlet begins and after deciding what the population needs as a whole to continue, we’re going to play around with eight chosen runners of the gauntlet. I’ll describe to you which traits are favored, and which will ultimately be the demise of some.
Here are the runners of the SOTF (survival of the fittest):
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1h1zC3BodRhj48j8xYhaDJZlQze6P9BrsRr3ZziEdo7E/edit?usp=sharing
Carla -
Favorable traits: Carla has beautiful deep shades of brown, black and white in her fur. This allows her to blend into her environment more easily than a tabby cat. Her ears are in perfect condition, allowing her to most likely pick up a bird’s landing. Lots of fur allows her to easily deal with the cold temperature of Rubber Band Island.
Unfavorable traits: Carla is a fat cat, reducing her mobility in hunting; her pounce will be weaker due to her weight in comparison to her leg strength, meaning less distance is covered airborne. This would be a favorable trait when hunting airborne animals.
Bud -
Favorable traits: Bud is a small, nimble black cat. Just about everything that is suited for an environment like this where the little kitty is able to blend in pretty easily. Although a little less than Carla due to Bud being a black dot running around in brown color schemed flora. Bud’s small weight allows him to pounce highly into the air, making birds more easy to catch.
Unfavorable traits: Bud has a thin layer of fur that would cause this cat to freeze in colder weather, like the kind on Rubberband Island. Bud’s small body comes at the cost of him having small claws and teeth, only limiting Bud to most likely successfully only catching smaller seagulls about his size or smaller without it getting away. His fur could also be seen as a downside if he doesn’t hunt during the night as the black fur doesn’t fit too well into the environment he’s been put in, where the ground is an open area that is covered in short grass that’s brown and green.
Gertrude -
Favorable traits: Gertrude is also a black cat, just like Bud. The majority of his favorable traits are shared with Bud, such as being able to blend in, his agile build, and pouncing ability based on weight. Gertrude doesn’t share one trait with Bud though, which is his actual weight. He’s a full-grown cat, which allows him to eat bigger birds, overall favorable.
Unfavorable traits: Short and black fur is a downside in the environment with short grass of brown and green, and only is shown favorable when night comes around. Freezing in the weather doesn’t show favorable when on the hunt, as it slows down a hunter.
Mimi -
Favorable traits: Mimi is also… a black cat. Deja vu? Mimi shares the same favorable traits of Gertrude and Bud, except that she has a bigger coat of fur than the other two black cats. This allows her to surpass them in the sense that she will be more concentrated on the hunt than the weather, giving her a higher chance of succeeding on the hunt.
Unfavorable traits: She’s a fat black cat, which once again does not do well in the daylight on an island like Rubberband island. Not only is her fur easily noticeable,it actually increases the risk of her getting spotted, and her ability to pounce is lowered severely (weighing at about 15 pounds, although the average weight of an average cat is 10 pounds).
Gino -
Favorable traits: Gino has fur in shades of white, brown and black just like Carla; it works as a severely favorable trait in the sense that his mainly dark shades of color allows him to blend into the night and day, giving him a higher success chance of catching prey at either time of day. His fur itself is thick naturally, yet he carries an agile body that allows him to move quickly.
Unfavorable traits: Gino doesn’t share many downsides at all here. He only
Andromeda -
Favorable traits: Andromeda is a black little cat, like Bud, except a full-grown adult. Once again, it’s about the same concept that we’ve gone over three times now. Black fur allows for her to blend in at night, and her nimble build allows her to move quickly except one thing that stands out is her bigger ears in comparison to the rest of the cats. This may allow Andromeda to hear little things a lot easier than the rest of the runners of the SOTF Gauntlet.
Unfavorable traits: Thin fur, black fur doesn’t allow for easy blending at any period that isn’t the night or afternoon. Her even thinner than normal body type means she’ll freeze over quicker, especially due to her thin fur as well, slowing down her ability to hunt.
Bahama -
Favorable traits: Bahama is a gray adult cat, fully grown. His fur might blend in with the often dull shading of the day’s lighting in a cloudy sky, which helps him hunt more easily as his fur is more favorable than tar-black fur. This gives Bahama the same advantage of black fur at night, without the downside of the day. His fur is thicker than the black cats, which means he isn’t halting at any time to warm up.
Unfavorable traits: Although his gray fur is better than the average black cat, it still doesn’t stop him from not blending in as well as we would want for hunting circumstances. It’s a minor downfall that won’t halt him too much inside the gauntlet, but in Rubberband Island, a kill is the definition between life or death.
For starters, they're gonna have a good amount of fur. No, not like a huge furball running around. Just right in between short fur and fluffy fur if that makes any sense. The reason why I'm saying that they're gonna have this balance of just the right amount of fur instead of looking like a ball of lint is because having lots of fur becomes a hassle to maintain, and also slows down movement when it's wet. Large amounts of fur also makes it easier to be tangled, causing minor inconviences for them, along with the factor of them getting parts of flora inside their fur.
My next guess on their evolution is that they'll have longer hind legs for leaping upwards to catch their seagulls. Pretty self-explanatory I think, but I'll explain why anyways. Let's say that the cat doesn't catch the bird while it's on the ground. What happens next? Bird flies away happy and alive, and the cat walks away hungry. The game changer here is that the bird flies away, but not for long because a aggressive furball is flying 10 feet in the air ready to slam dunk this bird right back on the ground, hence allowing it to feed once more.
My last theory is that these cats will develop longer ears than just any ordinary cat. Now I might be wrong on this one because I don't know enough about ears to understand how they work, but the bigger the better? Assuming that based on the size of the ears increases their ability to pick up sound. I'm not just pulling this out of nowhere, I'm just basing it off animals that can hear REALLY well. Take a look at bats and their big ears. There's gotta be some tie between ear size and hearing capabilities... right?
Now for a more visual representation, I masterfully sculpted a clay model of what I believe these cats are gonna look like in this future that I've predicted.
.
"Long Cat"
Sculpted by professional artist "Diego Baldree"
You'll notice that I really attempted to bring the life from this piece of clay, looking at this highly defined cat sculpted by only a master's hands. You can look at it and see how big the ears are, how thick the cat's body is, and how LONG those hind legs are. No, the cat is not supposed to evolve without any eyes, I just forgot about those being important in the moment of my beautiful creation.
In conclusion to all of this, I don't really think that cats would really survive for long on a place like Mullion island, mainly because I believe they'd end up with the same terrible fate as the very animals they eat. The seagulls around Mullion island are known to mistake plastic for food, which is why the entire place is covered in rubber bands because they think they're worms. Assuming this, then that would imply that what you're more than likely to find in their organs would be undigested plastics, which makes it harder for a cat to eat their prey when they're too busy figuring out what's meat, and what is plastic. That concludes the end of this project and I hope you enjoyed seeing me play around with the theory of evolution.
Favorable traits: Carla has beautiful deep shades of brown, black and white in her fur. This allows her to blend into her environment more easily than a tabby cat. Her ears are in perfect condition, allowing her to most likely pick up a bird’s landing. Lots of fur allows her to easily deal with the cold temperature of Rubber Band Island.
Unfavorable traits: Carla is a fat cat, reducing her mobility in hunting; her pounce will be weaker due to her weight in comparison to her leg strength, meaning less distance is covered airborne. This would be a favorable trait when hunting airborne animals.
Bud -
Favorable traits: Bud is a small, nimble black cat. Just about everything that is suited for an environment like this where the little kitty is able to blend in pretty easily. Although a little less than Carla due to Bud being a black dot running around in brown color schemed flora. Bud’s small weight allows him to pounce highly into the air, making birds more easy to catch.
Unfavorable traits: Bud has a thin layer of fur that would cause this cat to freeze in colder weather, like the kind on Rubberband Island. Bud’s small body comes at the cost of him having small claws and teeth, only limiting Bud to most likely successfully only catching smaller seagulls about his size or smaller without it getting away. His fur could also be seen as a downside if he doesn’t hunt during the night as the black fur doesn’t fit too well into the environment he’s been put in, where the ground is an open area that is covered in short grass that’s brown and green.
Gertrude -
Favorable traits: Gertrude is also a black cat, just like Bud. The majority of his favorable traits are shared with Bud, such as being able to blend in, his agile build, and pouncing ability based on weight. Gertrude doesn’t share one trait with Bud though, which is his actual weight. He’s a full-grown cat, which allows him to eat bigger birds, overall favorable.
Unfavorable traits: Short and black fur is a downside in the environment with short grass of brown and green, and only is shown favorable when night comes around. Freezing in the weather doesn’t show favorable when on the hunt, as it slows down a hunter.
Mimi -
Favorable traits: Mimi is also… a black cat. Deja vu? Mimi shares the same favorable traits of Gertrude and Bud, except that she has a bigger coat of fur than the other two black cats. This allows her to surpass them in the sense that she will be more concentrated on the hunt than the weather, giving her a higher chance of succeeding on the hunt.
Unfavorable traits: She’s a fat black cat, which once again does not do well in the daylight on an island like Rubberband island. Not only is her fur easily noticeable,it actually increases the risk of her getting spotted, and her ability to pounce is lowered severely (weighing at about 15 pounds, although the average weight of an average cat is 10 pounds).
Gino -
Favorable traits: Gino has fur in shades of white, brown and black just like Carla; it works as a severely favorable trait in the sense that his mainly dark shades of color allows him to blend into the night and day, giving him a higher success chance of catching prey at either time of day. His fur itself is thick naturally, yet he carries an agile body that allows him to move quickly.
Unfavorable traits: Gino doesn’t share many downsides at all here. He only
Andromeda -
Favorable traits: Andromeda is a black little cat, like Bud, except a full-grown adult. Once again, it’s about the same concept that we’ve gone over three times now. Black fur allows for her to blend in at night, and her nimble build allows her to move quickly except one thing that stands out is her bigger ears in comparison to the rest of the cats. This may allow Andromeda to hear little things a lot easier than the rest of the runners of the SOTF Gauntlet.
Unfavorable traits: Thin fur, black fur doesn’t allow for easy blending at any period that isn’t the night or afternoon. Her even thinner than normal body type means she’ll freeze over quicker, especially due to her thin fur as well, slowing down her ability to hunt.
Bahama -
Favorable traits: Bahama is a gray adult cat, fully grown. His fur might blend in with the often dull shading of the day’s lighting in a cloudy sky, which helps him hunt more easily as his fur is more favorable than tar-black fur. This gives Bahama the same advantage of black fur at night, without the downside of the day. His fur is thicker than the black cats, which means he isn’t halting at any time to warm up.
Unfavorable traits: Although his gray fur is better than the average black cat, it still doesn’t stop him from not blending in as well as we would want for hunting circumstances. It’s a minor downfall that won’t halt him too much inside the gauntlet, but in Rubberband Island, a kill is the definition between life or death.
The Gauntlet Goes On..
Boom. Somewhere 500 years into the future, let’s pretend Earth is still gonna be alive and well, and this island is still under the empire rule of cats. The question I'm gonna be asking and answering for you is how these cats are gonna look like after years of living in this environment. I've already been hinting at the possible factors that will be neccessary to survive a climate like "Rubberband Island." So without hesistation, here's my best guess on what the cats of the future will look like after years of evolution on this small island.For starters, they're gonna have a good amount of fur. No, not like a huge furball running around. Just right in between short fur and fluffy fur if that makes any sense. The reason why I'm saying that they're gonna have this balance of just the right amount of fur instead of looking like a ball of lint is because having lots of fur becomes a hassle to maintain, and also slows down movement when it's wet. Large amounts of fur also makes it easier to be tangled, causing minor inconviences for them, along with the factor of them getting parts of flora inside their fur.
My next guess on their evolution is that they'll have longer hind legs for leaping upwards to catch their seagulls. Pretty self-explanatory I think, but I'll explain why anyways. Let's say that the cat doesn't catch the bird while it's on the ground. What happens next? Bird flies away happy and alive, and the cat walks away hungry. The game changer here is that the bird flies away, but not for long because a aggressive furball is flying 10 feet in the air ready to slam dunk this bird right back on the ground, hence allowing it to feed once more.
My last theory is that these cats will develop longer ears than just any ordinary cat. Now I might be wrong on this one because I don't know enough about ears to understand how they work, but the bigger the better? Assuming that based on the size of the ears increases their ability to pick up sound. I'm not just pulling this out of nowhere, I'm just basing it off animals that can hear REALLY well. Take a look at bats and their big ears. There's gotta be some tie between ear size and hearing capabilities... right?
Now for a more visual representation, I masterfully sculpted a clay model of what I believe these cats are gonna look like in this future that I've predicted.
.
"Long Cat"
Sculpted by professional artist "Diego Baldree"
You'll notice that I really attempted to bring the life from this piece of clay, looking at this highly defined cat sculpted by only a master's hands. You can look at it and see how big the ears are, how thick the cat's body is, and how LONG those hind legs are. No, the cat is not supposed to evolve without any eyes, I just forgot about those being important in the moment of my beautiful creation.
Math Shenanigans
Down here in the shenanigans of math you'll find all the data I had to use for the handful of cats that I was given to look at, study, make my observations, and theorize about. The data we worked with was to see if I could find the mean, median, mode, range, minimum, maximum, quartile one, quartile three, and the the interquartile range of my data plot. WHICH I did, and I will happily present it to you below.
In conclusion to all of this, I don't really think that cats would really survive for long on a place like Mullion island, mainly because I believe they'd end up with the same terrible fate as the very animals they eat. The seagulls around Mullion island are known to mistake plastic for food, which is why the entire place is covered in rubber bands because they think they're worms. Assuming this, then that would imply that what you're more than likely to find in their organs would be undigested plastics, which makes it harder for a cat to eat their prey when they're too busy figuring out what's meat, and what is plastic. That concludes the end of this project and I hope you enjoyed seeing me play around with the theory of evolution.
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