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This paper considers predator–prey systems in which the predator adapts the search speed to prey's density. The prey admits the cost of fear because of the predator and moves between source–sink patches to escape from predation. Using dynamical systems theory, we demonstrate equilibrium stability, uniform persistence and bifurcations in the system. It is shown that enhancing the search speed of predator and/or decreasing prey's dispersal from the source to sink could promote persistence of the system, while increasing the fear cost would stabilize the system. Moreover, dispersal could make the prey persist in both source–sink patches, even drive the predator into extinction. The dispersal could also make the prey reach a total population abundance larger than that without dispersal, even larger than the carrying capacity. Asymmetry in dispersal plays a role in the persistence and abundance. A novel finding of this work is that dispersal may lead to results reversing those without dispersal. Numerical simulations illustrate and extend our results. This work is important in understanding complexity in predation systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]