Research overview: numerical response of lynx to hare density

An overview of how Canada lynx populations rise and fall in response to snowshoe hare abundance, the numerical-response half of the famous cycle. As hares increase, lynx reproduction and kitten survival improve and density climbs with a lag; as hares crash, lynx suffer reproductive failure, starvation and dispersal, and their numbers collapse a year or so behind the hares. This survey synthesizes the demographic mechanisms, including litter size, recruitment and emigration, that couple lynx to hare density, the time lags that generate cycling, and how the numerical response combines with the functional response to drive the oscillation. It connects to landmark boreal-forest studies. The topic explains how a specialist predator's population tracks its principal prey and contributes to one of ecology's classic cycles.