Three varieties of lizards play a collective rock paper scissors. Each is predator to one other color, as in the Common Side-Blotched Lizard, which come in three varieties (named after the color of their throats). These lizards make up a kind of ecological rock-paper-scissors game. Orange throats beat blue throats. Yellow throats beat orange throats. Blue throats beat yellow throats. You can change the threshold of predator neighbors needed to invade a neighboring lizard's spot. If set at 2, for example, then each color is vulnerable if next to two or more predators.
In this version, escher looking lizards fit in a hexagonal grid. The program fits the lizards together like a jigsaw puzzle. Then comes a series of invasions. Each color is vulnerable to invasion if next to two or more predators. See our board game version of this dynamic: https://lifepatternsemerging.com/little-tip There you will also find simulations of this game in NetLogo, using a square tiling instead of a hexagonal tiling. Also see our Scratch versions of this game using square tilings. For a much larger version of this, we used lists and stamping instead of clones. The lizard shapes are like M.C.Escher's reptile tessellations.
