Effects of Predator and Prey Hunting and Escape Strategies on Ecosystem Dynamics

Understanding of an ecosystem's resilience and stability requires an understanding of predatorprey dynamics because ecosystems consist of dynamical interacting subsystems that include predator-prey relationships. These relationships are closely related to the hunting-escaping strategies employed by the predator and prey. Therefore, understanding the effects of hunting and escaping strategies on ecosystems will lead to a better understanding of those systems. To this end, we constructed a spatially explicit lattice model to simulate integrative predator-prey-plant relationships. When an individual simultaneously encounters its predator and prey, either hunting or escaping should take priority. Hunting priority is referred to as a hunting preferred strategy (HPS), while escape priority is referred to as an escape preferred strategy (EPS). These strategies are associated with some degree of willingness to either hunt (H) or escape (E). In our model, the willingness of an individual to hunt or escape increased with increasing value of H or E, respectively we investigated changes in the predicted population densities for predator, prey, and plant species with changes in the values of H and E. Simulation results indicated that HPS positively contributed to ecosystem stability because those individuals that employed HPS had a greater chance of reproduction than those that employed EPS. In addition, we briefly discuss the development of our model as a tool for understanding behavioral strategies in specific predator-prey interactions.