Effects of random habitat destruction in a predator–prey model

The influence of habitat destruction on a population of predators and prey is studied. We show, via Monte Carlo simulations of a lattice model, that with growing devastation the oscillations in the densities of both species, as well as cross-correlations between the two densities diminish. As should be expected, predators are more vulnerable and disappear before the prey. Devastation of the habitat is never beneficial and the percentage of coexisting (prey and predators) states decreases with destruction. Because of the high fragmentation of the environment in the case of large devastation, animals’ populations are separated into small sub-populations living in restricted areas. Such small populations become extinct more easily. We have also shown that in the case of large habitat devastation the density of the population of prey depends on its history.