PREDATOR-PREY INTERACTIONS UNDER FEAR EFFECT AND MULTIPLE FORAGING STRATEGIES

. We propose and analyze the effects of a generalist predator-driven fear effect on a prey population by considering a modified Leslie-Gower predatorprey model. We assume that the prey population suffers from reduced fecundity due to the fear of predators. We investigate the predator-prey dynamics by incorporating linear, Holling type II and Holling type III foraging strategies of the generalist predator. As a control strategy, we have considered density-dependent harvesting of the organisms in the system. We show that the systems with linear and Holling type III foraging exhibit transcritical bifurcation, whereas the system with Holling type II foraging has a much more complex dynamics with transcritical, saddle-node, and Hopf bifurcations. It is observed that the prey population in the system with Holling type III foraging of the predator gets severely affected by the predation-driven fear effect in comparison with the same with linear and Holling type II foraging rates of the predator. Our model simulation results show that an increase in the harvesting rate of the predator is a viable strategy in recovering the prey population.