Stochastic analysis of a prey–predator model with herd behaviour of prey

In nature, a number of populations live in groups. As a result when predators attack such a population, the interaction occur only at the outer surface of the herd. Again, every model in biology, being concerned with a subsystem of the real world, should include the effect of random fluctuating environment. In this paper, we study a prey–predator model in deterministic and stochastic environment. The social activity of the prey population has been incorporated by using the square root of prey density in the functional response. A brief analysis of the deterministic model, including the stability of equilibrium points, is presented. In random environment, the birth rate of prey species and death rate of predator species are perturbed by Gaussian white noises. We have used the method of statistical linearization to study the stability and non-equilibrium fluctuation of the populations in stochastic model. Numerical computations carried out to illustrate the analytical findings. The biological implications of analytical and numerical findings are discussed critically.