The study, actually a fact sheet, I read (paraphrased)said, the increased litter size is due to some sort of magic sense that the females have. The more available territory, the larger the litter. It's probably (just a guess) also tied to the availability of game.

In my mind, it is six of one, half dozen of the other, you either deal with the Yotes you have or deal with the Yotes yet to be born.

Pretty high mortality rate in Yote Pups, they have to fight for territory, learn to hunt, many starve or disease gets them because they are weakened by hunger.

Thinning them out likely benefits both prey and predator and helps smooth out those feast and famine cycles. Some years the Predators do well and then kill off most of the food animals, then they starve and/or die of disease and the game animals can recover. Usually a multi year cycle.

The magic balance many liberals always talk about is a myth.

The red "X" is a predator den. The green circle is where the Pheasant and Ducks hang out. Darned if I know why they pick that spot year after year, It looks just the same as any other stretch of Creek to me. That den has been there for a long long time (best guess a hundred years or more), the Pheasant and Ducks are there every year, for as far back as I can remember.




Point is there seems to be something going on that nobody fully understands. Why and the heck would predator and prey pick the same spot for a family for decades or even centuries?

I can show you spots where exactly the same thing is happening, so this isn't a one off occurrence.