Concept
Version 9
Created by Boundless
Predation, Herbivory, and the Competitive Exclusion Principle
Predator and prey population cycling
The cycling of lynx and snowshoe hare populations in Northern Ontario is an example of predator-prey dynamics. As hare populations increase,the lynx populations also increase due to increased food supplies. Many lynx eating many hares causes a decline in the hare population size. This results in a decrease in the lynx population. Then the cycle begins again.
Source
Boundless vets and curates high-quality, openly licensed content from around the Internet. This particular resource used the following sources:
"OpenStax College, Community Ecology. October 17, 2013."
http://cnx.org/content/m44878/latest/Figure_45_06_01.jpg
OpenStax CNX
CC BY 3.0.