An hyperbolic-parabolic predator-prey model involving a vole population structured in age

Abstract

We prove existence and stability of entropy solutions for a predator-prey system consisting of an hyperbolic equation for predators and a parabolic-hyperbolic equation for preys. The preys' equation, which represents the evolution of a population of voles as in [2], depends on time, t, age, a, and on a 2-dimensional space variable x, and it is supplemented by a nonlocal boundary condition at a=0. The drift term in the predators' equation depends nonlocally on the density of preys and the two equations are also coupled via classical source terms of Lotka-Volterra type, as in [4]. We establish existence of solutions by applying the vanishing viscosity method, and we prove stability by a doubling of variables type argument.