Approximate analytical solutions of general Lotka-Volterra equations (Q1086197)

The Lotka-Volterra equations which describe the population dynamics of prey-predator species have been the subject of several recent papers. The general form of the equation which we considered here is \[ \overset\circ n_ 1=(a_ 1-b_ 1n_ 1-c_ 1n_ 2)n_ 1,\quad \overset\circ n_ 2=(-a_ 2+c_ 2n_ 1)n_ 2, \] here \(n_ 1\) is prey population and \(n_ 2\) is predator population with \(a_ 1,b_ 1,c_ 1,a_ 2\) and \(c_ 2>0\), assuming that the preys (but not predators) interfere with one another. This paper develops an approximate analytical solution of general Lotka-Volterra equations using Laplace transforms and perturbation method. This represents an improvement over purely linearized solutions reported earlier in the literature. The perturbation method can be applied to other nonlinear mathematical models of the population dynamics.