Games Played by Predators and Prey

Game theoretic models are being used to predict and analyze the strategies of predators and prey where the behavioral decisions of one player affect the decisions of the other and vice versa. Predators and prey may be involved in games of habitat selection, vigilance, pursuit and escape, and others. These games have been addressed through analytical methods, state-variable dynamic games, and evolutionary algorithms. In some cases, the models have been tested or confronted with empirical data. These are easier to generate in seminatural enclosures or in the laboratory, where the game can be perturbed in order to test the existence of the game. A common outcome in predator–prey games is that predators should distribute themselves according to the distribution of prey resource, rather than according to parameters that directly affect them.