Dynamics of a predator–prey model in a habitat with cover

We extend the model introduced earlier (Phys. Rev. E 63 (2001) 051909) and show, via Monte Carlo simulations that the observed oscillations of the densities of predator and prey are correlated if the concentration of cover for prey is not too large. We demonstrate also that although at small concentrations the existence of cover is beneficial for both species, increasing it leads to extinction, first of the predators and then of the prey. This we connect to the abrupt formation, at large concentrations of cover, of very large clusters of sites where neither species can feed or breed. We also show that the distribution of such quantities as density of predators and prey or food reserves follow, as is generally assumed, normal distribution.