• 1 Département de Mathematiques [Tlemcen]
• 2 School of Applied Mathematics and Informatics
• 3 Unité de modélisation mathématique et informatique des systèmes complexes [Bondy]

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of conflicting tactics of resource acquisition on stage structured population dynamics. We present a population subdivided into two distinct stages (immature and mature). We assume that immature individual survival is density dependent. We also assume that mature individuals acquire resources required to survive and reproduce by using two contrasted behavioral tactics (hawk versus dove). Mature individual survival thus is assumed to depend on the average cost of fights while individual fecundity depends on the average gain in the competition to access the resource. Our model includes two parts: a fast part that describes the encounters and fights involves a game dynamic model based upon the replicator equations, and a slow part that describes the long-term effects of conflicting tactics on the population dynamics. The existence of two time scales let us investigate the complete system from a reduced one, which describes the dynamics of the total immature and mature densities at the slow time scale. Our analysis shows that an increase in resource value may decrease total population density, because it promotes individual (i.e. selfish) behavior. Our results may therefore find practical implications in animal conservation or biological control for instance.