Stability and Hopf bifurcation analysis in a three-level food chain system with delay

A class of three level food chain system is studied. With the theory of delay equations and Hopf bifurcation, the conditions of the positive equilibrium undergoing Hopf bifurcation is given regarding τ as the parameter. The stability and direction of Hopf bifurcation are determined by applying the normal form theory and the center manifold argument, and numerical simulations are performed to illustrate the analytical results.