Computer-assisted analysis of chaos in a three-species food chain model

In this paper, a three-species food chain model with Holling type IV and Beddington–DeAngelis functional responses is formulated. Numerical simulations show that this system can generate chaos for some parameter values. But the mechanism behind chaos is still unclear only through numerical simulations. Then, using the topological horseshoe theories and Conley–Moser conditions, we present a computer-assisted analysis to show the chaoticity of this system in the topological sense, that is, it has positive topological entropy. We prove that the Poincaré map of this model possesses a closed uniformly hyperbolic chaotic invariant set, and it is topologically conjugate to a 2-shift map. At last, we consider the impact of fear on this three-species model. It is an important factor in controlling chaos in biological models, which has been validated in other models.