The Ten-Year Cycle in Numbers of the Lynx in Canada
Elton C and Nicholson M. 1942. The Ten-Year Cycle in Numbers of the Lynx in Canada. Journal of Animal Ecology. 11(2):215-244
1. Hudson's Bay Company and some other records provide a record of lynx (Lynx canadensis) fur collections in Canada for 206 years. Details for smaller regions have been obtained for 1821-1934 or 1937. The regions have been constructed from the original fur trade districts, in such a way as to give fairly standard areas for comparing catches over long periods. 2. The cycle in lynx furs is very violent and regular and has persisted unchanged for the whole period. Its average period is about 9.6 years. 3. This cycle is a real one in lynx populations, which are dependent upon the snowshoe rabbit (Lepus americanus) for food, and which starve when the rabbits disappear periodically. It is therefore strong evidence of a similar cycle in snowshoe rabbits for the last 206 years. 4. The wide synchronization of the cycle in different parts of Canada for at least 100 years, its parallel occurrence both west and east of the Rockies, and its independent occurrence in aquatic species such as the muskrat (Ondatra zibethica) and the salmon (Salmo salar), strongly suggest the existence of a climatic factor partly controlling it.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Elton, Charles; Nicholson, Mary
- Units
- DENA , WRST , YUCH
- Keywords
- Animal Communities (Wildlife), Boreal Forest, Furbearer, Lynx, Population Cycles, Small Mammal, Subarctic, Taiga, Terrestrial Ecology