Numerical responses of coyotes and lynx to the snowshoe hare cycle

Part of the Kluane Boreal Forest Ecosystem Project, this study tracked how lynx and coyote densities changed across a full snowshoe hare cycle. O'Donoghue and colleagues documented strong numerical responses: predator densities rose and fell with a lag behind hare numbers, driven by changes in reproduction, recruitment and movement rather than instantaneous tracking. Lynx showed a delayed increase as hares peaked and a sharp collapse as hares crashed, with dispersal and reduced kitten survival amplifying the decline. The work quantified the demographic mechanisms that couple predator and prey abundance, providing the numerical-response half of the predator-prey functional architecture that generates the lynx-hare cycle and informing models of boreal carnivore dynamics.