Snowshoe hares in the Canadian territory of Yukon undergo a 10-year cycle of population growth and collapse, closely followed by a similar trend in predator numbers. However, there is a perplexingly slow rebound in the number of hares (Lepus americanus, pictured above with predator) after the decline has ended, even when predators have all but disappeared and food is abundant.
Michael Sheriff at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and his colleagues show that high levels of predation result in a sharp increase in levels of maternal stress hormones. These levels remain high in the offspring of these stressed animals and persist into adulthood, depressing reproduction. This suggests that the inheritance of stress levels results in a slow recovery of a population of wild mammals, supporting laboratory studies.
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Ecology: Mothers stress kids out. Nature 464, 653 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/464653b
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/464653b
