Past exam of the short options course of the University of Oxford / 2023 / 9 / b / iii / Solution

Under $A>1$, $B<1$, $AB>1$, the thresholds are ordered $0<1/A<B<1$. As $\gamma$ decreases from one, $S_2$ first becomes stable atFor $1/A<\gamma <B$, both boundary equilibria are stable, and the positive coexistence point $S_4$ is a saddle point. Its stable manifold is the separatrix between their basins of attraction. For every fixed $u_1(0)>0$, a sufficiently small positive $u_2(0)$ lies in the red-survival basin. To justify the quantifier beyond a neighborhood of $S_2$, start on the red-only axis: its logistic equation approaches $S_2$. Continuous dependence over the finite time needed to enter a stable neighborhood shows that sufficiently small positive initial grey populations do so as well.

At the second threshold,$S_4$ meets $S_3$. For $0<\gamma <1/A$, $S_3$ is a saddle point, its stable manifold is the grey-only axis, and there is no positive coexistence equilibrium. Boundedness and the same Bendixson-Dulac theorem argument rule out an interior cycle. Consequently every initial state with $u_1(0)>0$ and $u_2(0)\ge 0$ approaches $S_2=(1,0)$. This is the removal regime that eliminates grey squirrels regardless of their initial abundance. At threshold equality linearization is nonhyperbolic; the strict parameter intervals above avoid inferring stability from a zero eigenvalue.