Why It’s Usually Crazier Than You Expect
30th January 2021
orecasting when a species might go extinct is hard because whatever is causing a species to die off rarely progresses at the same rate. It can speed up in the blink of an eye in ways that surprise people.
Two researchers wrote a paper a few years ago explaining why.
Say an elephant is being hunted for its tusk. The rate of hunting often massively speeds up over time, cascading into a frenzy that pushes a mildly at-risk species into quick extinction.
Bison in America, 1883.