Functional responses of coyotes and lynx to the snowshoe hare cycle

The companion to their numerical-response study, this paper measured how the kill rate of individual lynx and coyotes changed with snowshoe hare density across the Kluane cycle. O'Donoghue and colleagues found that lynx kill rates increased with hare abundance toward a plateau, fitting a saturating (Type II) functional response, while diet broadened to alternative prey such as red squirrels and grouse when hares were scarce. Combining functional and numerical responses revealed the total predation pressure predators impose at each phase of the cycle, showing predation is strongly destabilizing during the hare decline. The study provides the empirical functional-response parameters that underpin mechanistic models of the boreal lynx-hare system.