The predator-prey-type ecosystem is investigated, taking into account the time-delay effect of the prey population on the predator population, as well as random variations in the birth rate of the prey and the death rate of the predators. The stochastic averaging procedure is applied to obtain the probability distributions of the predator and prey populations at the state of statistical station...

1. Theory suggests that the relationship between predator diversity and prey suppression should depend on variation in predator traits such as body size, which strongly influences the type and strength of species interactions. Prey species often face a range of different sized predators, and the composition of body sizes of predators can vary between communities and within communities across se...

The escalation hypothesis posits that predation by increasingly powerful and metabolically active carnivores has been a major driver of metazoan evolution. We test a key tenet of this hypothesis by analyzing predatory drill holes in fossil marine shells, which provide a ~500-million-year record of individual predator-prey interactions. We show that drill-hole size is a robust predictor of body ...

Numerous studies have documented how prey may use antipredator strategies to reduce the risk of predation from a single predator. However, when a recolonizing predator enters an already complex predator–prey system, specific antipredator behaviors may conflict and avoidance of one predator may enhance vulnerability to another. We studied the patterns of prey selection by recolonizing wolves (Ca...

1. Functional response models (e.g. Holling's disc equation) that do not take the spatial distributions of prey and predators into account are likely to produce biased estimates of predation rates. 2. To investigate the consequences of ignoring prey distribution and predator aggregation, a general analytical model of a predator population occupying a patchy environment with a single species of ...

By incorporating a prey refuge, this paper proposes new discrete Leslie–Gower predator–prey systems with and without Allee effect. The existence of fixed points are established and the stability of fixed points are discussed by analyzing the modulus of characteristic roots. Keywords—Leslie–Gower; predator–prey model; prey refuge; Allee effect.

BACKGROUND Little is known about the impact of prey sexual dimorphism on predator-prey dynamics and the impact of sex-selective harvesting and trophy hunting on long-term stability of exploited populations. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We review the quantitative evidence for sex-selective predation and study its long-term consequences using several simple predator-prey models. These mod...