Dynamics of a Predator–Prey Model with Hunting Cooperation and Allee Effects in Predators

Abstract

With both hunting cooperation and Allee effects in predators, a predator–prey system was modeled as a planar cubic differential system with three parameters. The known work numerically plots the horizontal isocline and the vertical one with appropriately chosen parameter values to show the cases of two, one and no coexisting equilibria. Transitions among those cases with the rise of limit cycle and homoclinic loop were exhibited by numerical simulations. Although it is hard to obtain the explicit expression of coordinates, in this paper, we give the distribution of equilibria qualitatively, discuss all cases of coexisting equilibria, and obtain the Bogdanov–Takens bifurcation diagram to show analytical parameter conditions for those transitions. Our results give analytical conditions for not only the observed saddle-node bifurcation, Hopf bifurcation and homoclinic bifurcation but also the transcritical and pitchfork bifurcations at the predator-extinction equilibrium, which were not considered in the known work. Our analytic conditions provide a quantitative instruction to reduce the risk of predator extinction and promote the ecosystem diversity.