Question

This is a Discussion post: In bold is the question and below that is the response. Please respond to the below response and be very detailed in the response.

Do you think that predator/prey models will exhibit oscillatory behavior? This is a model that describes the interaction between predators and prey in any natural environment. Do you agree? Why or why not?

Looking at trends in nature, based on the concept of natural selection, I believe that oscillatory behaviors will always exist among species. Looking at the human race for instance, if you believe in the concept of evolution, it started out with less intelligence and a rudimentary means of surviving. Predators such as mammoths and saber-toothed cats created an environment of competition where humans needed to become smarter and evolve to survive. Fast forward to today and the intellectual power of the human race (mainly the majority) has propelled it to the top of the food chain since it has been able to dominate the ecosystem. The only wild card I would mention is if some natural disaster were to wipe out the main predator, equaling the playing field and allowing life to be put at a new baseline.

Answer 1

Oscilatory behaviour is same as a moving car bounces around the centre of aa road as it moves down. There are ups and downs and both the up segment and the down segment equalizes each other. Hence both are required in such behaviour.

Now coming to the predator/prey model, first we need to understand the famous theory of Chrles darwin which says "survival of the fittest". This means the species that can fit itself with the prevailing conditions and adopt the situation easily can survive for long period of time. There is only two option in this situation either you survive or you extinct. This is very similar like the oscilatory behaviour where the up and down segment are opposite to each other and equalizes each other.

From the very period of arrival human race didn't have the power like other preditors and didn't have the agility like preys. But they were gifted with intelligence. They used the very power to overshoot all the other species and stay at the top of the food chain. They stayed at the top of saber toothed preditors as well as weak preys.

Same thing goes as well on preditors and preys. Both are important for the food chain to operate properly. They both are required because if the number of one is increased numoruosly, it may affect the nature in direct or indirect manner. Hence both the opposite part of the food chain are required to operate the food chain properly. Hence we can say that the predator/prey model follows oscilatory behaviour.