THE ROLE OF ADDITIONAL FOOD IN A PREDATOR–PREY MODEL WITH A PREY REFUGE

Abstract

In this paper, we propose and analyze a predator–prey model with a prey refuge and additional food for predators. We study the impact of a prey refuge on the stability dynamics, when a constant proportion or a constant number of prey moves to the refuge area. The system dynamics are studied using both analytical and numerical techniques. We observe that the prey refuge can replace the predator–prey oscillations by a stable equilibrium if the refuge size crosses a threshold value. It is also observed that, if the refuge size is very high, then the extinction of the predator population is certain. Further, we observe that enhancement of additional food for predators prevents the extinction of the predator and also replaces the stable limit cycle with a stable equilibrium. Our results suggest that additional food for the predators enhances the stability and persistence of the system. Extensive numerical experiments are performed to illustrate our analytical findings.