The impact of Allee effect on a predator–prey system with Holling type II functional response

Abstract

In this paper, the Allee effect is incorporated into a predator–prey model with Holling type II functional response. Compared with the predator–prey model without Allee effect, we find that the Allee effect of prey species increases the extinction risk of both predators and prey. When the handling time of predators is relatively short and the Allee effect of prey species becomes strong, both predators and prey may become extinct. Moreover, it is shown that the model with Allee effect undergoes the Hopf bifurcation and heteroclinic bifurcation. The Allee effect of prey species can lead to unstable periodical oscillation. It is also found that the positive equilibrium of the model could change from stable to unstable, and then to stable when the strength of Allee effect or the handling time of predators increases continuously from zero, that is, the model admits stability switches as a parameter changes. When the Allee effect of prey species becomes strong, longer handling time of predators may stabilize the coexistent steady state.