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Article
A model of the burglar alarm hypothesis of prey alarm calls
Theoretical Population Biology
  • Evan C Haskell, Nova Southeastern University
  • Jonathan Bell, University of Maryland Baltimore County
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-1-2021
Keywords
  • Predator–prey,
  • Burglar alarm hypothesis,
  • Taxis,
  • Pattern formation,
  • Bifurcation,
  • Stability
Disciplines
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.

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DOI
10.1016/j.tpb.2021.05.004
Citation Information
Evan C Haskell and Jonathan Bell. "A model of the burglar alarm hypothesis of prey alarm calls" Theoretical Population Biology Vol. 141 (2021) p. 1 - 13 ISSN: 0040-5809
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/evan-haskell/104/