Dynamics of prey-flock escaping behavior in response to predator's attack

Abstract

The dynamic behavior of prey-flock in response to predator's attack was investigated by using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in a two-dimensional (2D) continuum model. By locally applying interactive forces between prey individuals (e.g. attraction, repulsion, and alignment), a coherently moving state in the same direction was obtained among individuals in prey-flock. When a single predator was introduced to the prey population, the prey-flock was correspondingly deformed by the predator's continuous attacks towards the prey-flock's center. In response to the predator's attack, three regimes in the flock size (compression (Regime I), expansion (Regime II), compression (Regime III)) were revealed if the predator's attack speed (κ) was comparatively low to the escape speed of prey-flock. If noise was added to the predator's attacking course, a higher degree of variation was observed in the patterns of compression and expansion in the prey-flock size. However, the scaling behavior in the changes in prey-flock size was present in different levels of noise with the increase in predation risk (R) when κ takes an appropriately low value. During the procedure of escaping, order breaking in alignment (φ) of prey population was observed, while the degree of alignment was dependent upon the changes in parameters of κ and R.