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Updated: Mar 5, 2026

At-Risk Butterfly Captive Propagation Programs to Enhance Life History Knowledge and Effective Ex Situ Conservation Techniques

At-Risk Butterfly Captive Propagation Programs to Enhance Life History Knowledge and Effective Ex Situ Conservation Techniques

Published on: February 11, 2020

Range contraction enables harvesting to extinction.

Matthew G Burgess^1,2,3,4, Christopher Costello^5,2,3, Alexa Fredston-Hermann²

¹Sustainable Fisheries Group, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106; mburgess@ucsb.edu tilman@umn.edu.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

|March 30, 2017

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Harvesting species to extinction is possible when their geographic range shrinks, maintaining local densities and harvest profits. This range contraction poses a significant extinction risk, especially for aquatic and some terrestrial species.

Keywords:

anthropogenic Allee effect biogeography endangered species hyperstable poaching

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Area of Science:

Ecology
Conservation Biology
Fisheries Science

Background:

Harvesting typically ceases as species decline due to rising costs.
An exception occurs when rising consumer demand increases prices faster than costs.
A less recognized threat is range contraction, which can maintain harvestability.

Purpose of the Study:

To analyze the threat of range contraction on species' harvestability.
To identify conditions under which profitable overharvesting can lead to extinction.
To compare model predictions with empirical data on harvested species.

Main Methods:

Developed a simple model to assess the interplay of range contraction and price changes.
Reviewed empirical data for aquatic and terrestrial species.
Analyzed factors contributing to range contraction, such as schooling and habitat loss.

Main Results:

Range contractions can facilitate profitable overharvesting to extinction, even without significant price increases, particularly in schooling aquatic species.
High-value aquatic species may experience price increases that exacerbate extinction risk.
Evidence suggests range contractions are a common factor in the extinction risk of declining terrestrial mammals and birds.

Conclusions:

Range contraction is an underappreciated driver of extinction risk in harvested populations.
Factors promoting range contraction, like schooling behavior and habitat loss, increase vulnerability to overharvesting.
Conservation strategies must consider range dynamics alongside abundance and price in managing harvested species.