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A low density population of the California vole was provided with unlimited food supplementing the natural forage for 11 months. Numbers at first increased very slowly, then rose abruptly to only a moderate density and then declined rapidly in spite of excellent individual growth rates and a sustained high reproductive rate among the adults. Thus supplemental food was not sufficient to produce a rapidly expanding population or to prevent a decline to low numbers.
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Krebs et al. (1965) studied this question.
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