Tuesday, July 29, 2025

What does a woodchuck chuck?

Husband wakes in the middle of the night. He thinks about natural population control and tries to remember the equation involving food, bunnies, and foxes. Something about as one increases the other increases until something happens and all decrease again. Or something like that.*

I wake in the night and try to remember what a woodchuck would chuck if it could chuck it. And how many. 


We have an almost hidden hydrangea bush in the garden that's been there longer than we have I think. For the first time yesterday I picked some of the glorious blooms for the house.

* Lotka-Volterra equation

p' = k1*p - c*p*q

q' = -k2*q + d*p*q

Unlimited food = bunny pop grows = more meetings between bunnies and foxes = foxes eat bunnies = fox pop grows = eat more bunnies = bunny numbers decrease = fox numbers decrease.


18 comments:

Debra She Who Seeks said...

Such beautiful flowers!

Boud said...

You do think of some strange stuff!

Anvilcloud said...

That result makes sense, but a formula is beyond me.

Marie Smith said...

Love those blooms. Gorgeous!

Ann said...

Pretty blooms. I should cut some of mine and bring them in

Kathy G said...

Hydrangea is one of my favorites.

jabblog said...

The thoughts that come to us in the middle of the night are a mystery.

Ole phat Stu said...

Not dissimilar to nuclear critical mass ?

ArcticFox said...

the foxes and rabbits thing.... it used to be included as a program on cassette tape with every zx spectrum..... there was like a sine wave graph of what happens as the two populations increase and decrease in relation to each other....... how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood!
I used to have a hydrangea in my garden and i used to take great delight in setting fire to it once all those blossoms have dried and gone crispy...... it was like the burning bush of babylon and it didn't seem to harm the thing.... i know, i was young and reckless...... now i'm old and feckless

Liz Hinds said...

Thank you!

Liz Hinds said...

You're telling me!

Liz Hinds said...

Totally, AC!

Liz Hinds said...

Thank you.

Liz Hinds said...

I'd never thought of it before. Yes, you should.

Liz Hinds said...

I wasn't keen on it but it's grown on me now.

Liz Hinds said...

You have to wonder where your brain goes to come up with these.

Liz Hinds said...

Undoubtedly, Stu.

Liz Hinds said...

That's probably where he got it from, Arctic Fox! we had a spectrum.