The Influence of Fear on Intraspecific Competition in Predator-Prey Dynamics: A Model-Based Study

The study explores the impact of fear levels and intra-species competition on the predator-prey system’s dynamics. High fear levels or competition among prey stabilizes the system by preventing periodic solutions. In contrast, low fear levels or competition triggers the emergence of limit cycles through Hopf bifurcation. Additionally, higher intrinsic growth rates of prey, predator consumption rates, efficiency in converting prey to new predators, and predator harvesting rates also lead to limit cycle emergence. It is observed that when the white noise intensity is kept below a specific threshold value, the validity of the deterministic control approach remains unaffected in the presence of environmental disturbances. The analysis includes generalized Hopf and Bogdanov-Takens bifurcations, which are further validated through numerical simulations.