Novel dynamics of a predator-prey system with harvesting of the predator guided by its population

A predator-prey model was extended to include nonlinear harvesting of the predator guided by its population, such that harvesting is only implemented if the predator population exceeds an economic threshold. The proposed model is a nonsmooth dynamic system with switches between the original predator-prey model (free subsystem) and a model with nonlinear harvesting (harvesting subsystem). We initially examine the dynamics of both the free and the harvesting subsystems, and then we investigate the dynamics of the switching system using theories of nonsmooth systems. Theoretical results showed that the harvesting subsystem undergoes multiple bifurcations, including saddle-node, supercritical Hopf, Bogdanov-Takens and homoclinic bifurcations. The switching system not only retains all of the complex dynamics of the harvesting system but also exhibits much richer dynamics such as a sliding equilibrium, sliding cycle, boundary node (saddle point) bifurcation, boundary saddle-node bifurcation and buckling bifurcation. Both theoretical and numerical results showed that, by implementing predator population guided harvesting, the predator and prey population could coexist in more scenarios than those in which the predator may go extinct for the continuous harvesting regime. They could either stabilize at an equilibrium or oscillate periodically depending on the value of the economic threshold and the initial value of the system.