Distribution of animal population fluctuations

We show that the fluctuations of a variety of animal (insect, mammal and fish) populations are well-modeled by stable (Lévy) distributions, a family of distributions which includes the Gaussian. Our findings together with the finding [A.P. Allen, B.-L. Li, E.L. Charnov, Ecol. Lett. 4 (2001) 1-3] that bird population fluctuations are well-modeled by Gaussian distributions suggest the hypothesis that, in general, animal population fluctuations are well-modeled by stable distributions. If the hypothesis is confirmed, the stable law for the distribution of animal population fluctuations would be useful for animal population modeling, prediction and management.