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Science 22 June 1984:
Vol. 224. no. 4655, pp. 1350 - 1352
DOI: 10.1126/science.224.4655.1350
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Articles

Wolves, Moose, and the Allometry of Population Cycles

R. O. PETERSON 1, R. E. PAGE 1, and K. M. DODGE 1

1 Department of Biological Sciences, Michigan Technological University, Houghton 49931

After a decade of dramatic population fluctuations, protected populations of wolves and moose in Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior returned in 1983 to the levels observed in the 1950's. Inherent lags in this predator-prey system and the strong recovery of the moose population following a wolf population crash suggest that these populations may continue to cycle with a period length of about 38 (95 percent confidence interval, ±13) years. Such a long-term cycle is consistent with the proposal that period length of herbivore population cycles will characteristically scale according to the fourth root of body mass, a basic allometric relation linking physiological cycles to population processes.

Submitted on December 22, 1983
Accepted on April 16, 1984


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Wolves, Moose, and Tree Rings on Isle Royale.
B. E. McLaren and R. O. Peterson (1994)
Science 266, 1555-1558
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Long-term study of the natural environment - perceptive science or mindless monitoring?.
T.P. Burt (1994)
Progress in Physical Geography 18, 475-496
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