here we go again!
But I think that was a great post, and perhaps a good model of what is actually happening. However, I tend to look at it not from a two or three year oscillation, but a minimum of two or three decades.
The reason why is when the conditions are good, I don't think that the populations are moving very far, just the opposite. When the conditions are favorable the recruitment will be high and the area the population occupies will expand very slowly, but the density of the snakes increases, and still very few snakes are transient and gene flow with neighboring populations is still limited.
Then when the conditions are harsh the population will disperse with a high percentage of the individuals becoming transient, and although the population is expanding the area it occupies, mortality increases. The interpopulation gene flow then increases as territory is expanded but recruitment is very limited to a few individuals that can best find resources. The population then contracts and you are left with small pockets again that are now spread out over a larger area. This entire cycle I think would take several generations for it to be a working model, but at a very basic level supports the data I have collected over a very short period of time.
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"Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew!" Charlie Papazian

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