A model of the burglar alarm hypothesis of prey alarm calls

Evan C. Haskell and Jonathan Bell

Theoretical Population Biology, 2021, vol. 141, issue C, 1-13

Abstract: When approached by a predator many prey species will emit an “alarm call†as a form of anti-predator behavior. One hypothesis for the function of alarm calls is the “burglar alarm†hypothesis whereby upon attack, a prey renders itself dangerous to a predator by generating an alarm call that attracts a predator at higher trophic levels in the food chain; that is, attracts a predator to the prey’s own predator. This paper concerns a model incorporating a mechanism to test the burglar alarm hypothesis. We prove in one space dimension global existence, of positive bounded classical solutions, and establish existence of non-constant equilibrium solutions and assess their stability. We provide some representative numerical simulations to emphasize the nature of pattern formation for this model and demonstrate the benefit achieved by a signal inducing prey species under the burglar alarm hypothesis.

Keywords: Predator–prey; Burglar alarm hypothesis; Taxis; Pattern formation; Bifurcation; Stability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:thpobi:v:141:y:2021:i:c:p:1-13

DOI: 10.1016/j.tpb.2021.05.004

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