Suppose that gazelle are the only prey and food supply of cheetahs, and that the

Question

Suppose that gazelle are the only prey and food supply of cheetahs, and that the predatorprey interaction follows LotkaVolterra dynamics. The mortality rate of cheetahs in the absence of gazelles is 0.1 per week, and the intrinsic growth rate of gazelles in the absence of predation is 0.2 per week. The successful attack rate is 0.002, and the efficiency at which gazelles biomass is converted into cheetah biomass is 0.2.

If there are 30 cheetahs in a population, and 400 gazelles are present, the rate at which prey will be killed is _______ per week.

Explanation / Answer

Lotka volterra dynmaics equation is:

dG/dt = a*G - b*G*C
dC/dt = e*b*G*C - c*C

where for us, a=0.2, b=0.002, c=0.1 and e=0.2

thus solving, we get dG/dt as 56 per week and dC/dt as 1.8/ week.

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