Boxi Learn › Biology › Stage 4 · Systems and Argument
Hares and lynx: why do the numbers cycle?
In nature, populations stay at a fixed balance, or predators simply eat their prey until it is gone.
Predators and prey can rise and fall in repeating cycles with the predator peak arriving after the prey peak, because predators multiply only after food is plentiful and starve only after it is gone.
A friend says lynx should just eat hares until there are none left. Using the loop, explain why the lynx crash before the hares run out, and why their peak comes after the hares' peak.
Play “hares and lynx” with dried beans (hares) and coins (lynx) on a table: each round every hare has a baby, each lynx eats one hare if it can, a lynx that ate 3 hares has a kitten and one that ate none dies. Count both after each round and plot them. Do you see the lynx peak late?