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Finerty, J.P.
Cycles in Canadian lynx
1979 American Naturalist (114(3)): 453-455
Because of the confusion which often seems to surround studies of population cycles, and because we are still trying to understand what these cycles represent, it is necessary to be particularly cautious when examining data series, especially when comparing one series to another. A good case in point is a challenging paper (Gilpin 1973) purporting to demonstrate that the lynx pelt cycle, instead of following the cycle in snowshoe hare as one would expect for a predator-prey cycle, is actually sometimes ahead of the hare cycle. Gilpin's paper and a more recent commentary (Weinstein 1977) suggest that the fur trappers might be a major pressure on the population and that the cycle in lynx might reflect hunting strategy changes among trappers rather than changes in the population density of the lynx.
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