less prey means predators have less food, so they don’t reproduce as much or die of hunger, this decreases predator population, this means prey has better conditions to reproduce, this means that prey population grows, this means that predators now have more prey available, this means that predator population grows, which limits prey population. it’s a cycle, it’s pretty long, and nobody remembers that’s how it rolls before it completes. it’s not very regular, but sensitive to random inputs