Predator-prey cycles are indeed a real phenomenon, but the classic Lotka-Volterra equations are too neat—nature is more chaotic. The old Canadian lynx-hare fur data shows cycles, but our work with desert foxes and rodents in Rajasthan teaches me that drought and human activity break these perfect models more often than not. From my own camera traps, I’ve seen a good monsoon year create a prey boom without the expected predator rise, because a highway had cut their territory in two. So the equations give us a starting idea, but the real data is always complicated by the ground reality, *dekhte hain*.
#food
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