The impact of behavioral plasticity at individual level on domestic cat population dynamics

An extension of a model studying the population dynamic consequences of intra-individual variability in behavior is presented. Individuals can adopt three different tactics: hawk, dove and bully. We consider a population of individuals that compete for some resources. The same individual experiences the different tactics in his life and it is assumed that the game is played at a fast time scale in comparison to population dynamics. This fast part of the model is coupled to a slow part, which describes the growth of each sub-population. By use of aggregation methods, we obtain an equation governing the total population at the slow time scale. This equation is a logistic one whose r and K parameters are related to the payoff of the tactics. The model is applied to the case of domestic cat populations. Results show that the highest population density corresponding to urban environment is reached when all individuals are bully. We also obtain a gradient from rural to urban environments, respectively corresponding to aggressive to non-aggressive individuals. The results of the model are consistent with empirical data: high-density populations of domestic cats are mainly bullies, whereas low-density populations are mainly hawks.