Predation and population cycles

Abstract

The first attempts at a mathematical theory of predation appeared in the 1920s, the well-known Lotka-Volterra equations. The major conclusion of this simple theory was that predator-prey systems tended to oscillate numerically with periods and amplitudes determined by their initial population densities. The coincidence of this theory with the first quantitative analyses of cyclic fluctuations of small mammal populations by Elton (1924) led to the durable hypothesis that such oscillations were manifestations of predation.