Predation Impact and Its Importance to Prey Populations

Abstract

How many deer do wolves and lynxes kill annually and how does this amount compare with deer numbers and reproductive potential? Do predators rob enough nests and capture enough birds to keep the bird population lower in numbers than might be expected from food resources in the forest? If predators are responsible for the whole winter mortality of rodents, would all rodents survive winter when protected from predation? Questions of this kind are asked in this last chapter. Not all of them are given answers.