physics with multiple creatures

Suppose you have creature A with creature B in simulation, and then you have
creature A with creature C in simulation. Assume they don't touch. I noticed
that creature A will act slightly different in the presence of creature B
than in the presence of creature C. The actions of A are totally
deterministic and it has no way to sense anything about B or C. My guess is
that maybe some kind of global energy conservation is causing an effect
where the actions of one can creates errors in the physics engine that
affect the other -- just a guess as I don't know exactly how the physics
engine works. Does anyone have thoughts on this? The reason I ask is because
the phenomenon makes evaluating coevolution of creatures more difficult --
hard to tell the difference between legitimate interaction and cheating
(sabotage) by creating global errors.

[note: by "error" I mean deviation from perfect physical accuracy, not
bug-like]

-rick

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