Analysis of Prey-Predator Scheme in Conjunction with Help and Gestation Delay

Abstract

This paper presents a three-dimensional continuous time dynamical system of three species, two of which are competing preys and one is a predator. We also assume that during predation, the members of both teams of preys help each other and the rate of predation of both teams is different. The interaction between prey and predator is assumed to be governed by a Holling type II functional response and discrete type gestation delay of the predator for consumption of the prey. In this work, we establish the local asymptotic stability of various equilibrium points to understand the dynamics of the model system. Different conditions for the coexistence of equilibrium solutions are discussed. Persistence, permanence of the system, and global stability of the positive interior equilibrium solution are discussed by constructing suitable Lyapunov functions when the gestation delay is zero, and there is no periodic orbit within the interior of the first quadrant of state space around the interior equilibrium. As we introduced time delay due to the gestation of the predator, we also discuss the stability of the delayed model. It is observed that the existence of stability switching occurs around the interior equilibrium point as the gestation delay increases through a certain critical threshold. Here, a phenomenon of Hopf bifurcation occurs, and a stable limit cycle corresponding to the periodic solution of the system is also observed. This study reveals that the delay is taken as a bifurcation parameter and also plays a significant role for the stability of the proposed model. Computer simulations of numerical examples are given to explain our proposed model. We have also addressed critically the biological implications of our analytical findings with proper numerical examples.