Metapopulation

Metapopulation is like having a lot of neighborhoods. A neighborhood is like the area around your house. Each neighborhood has lots of houses, and each house has a family living in it. A metapopulation is when there are many neighborhoods spread out in a big area, with some neighborhoods close together and some far apart. There are different kinds of animals living in these neighborhoods. Some animals live in all or most of the neighborhoods, like mice, while other animals only live in one or two neighborhoods, like bears. Even if all the neighborhoods have the same kind of animal, the animals in each one might be a little different. For example, the mice in one neighborhood might be different colors than the mice in another neighborhood. When the animals in one neighborhood need help, like more food, they can move to other nearby neighborhoods to find it. This helps keep the population, or number of animals, healthy all over the big area.