PARENT SESSION
Friday, August 11, 8:00-10:30 am
Poster Session 26 - Latebreaking and newsworthy posters
Exhibit Hall, Ballroom Level, Cook Convention Center

Endangering the endangered: how the value we place in rarity can trigger extinction.

Hall, Richard^*,1, Courchamp, Franck¹, Angulo, Elena ¹, Bull, Leigh¹, Meinard, Yves¹, Rivalan, Philippe¹, Signoret, Laetitia¹, ¹ Universite Paris-Sud, Orsay, Ile-de-France, France

ABSTRACT- One of the key aims of conservation organizations is to preserve biodiversity. As such, organizations such as the IUCN produce a list of those species that are endangered. This raises public awareness of endangered species, which may result in benefits such as increased legal protection, and additional funds for conservation. However, humans place disproportionate value on rarity, and hence classifying a species as rare can, paradoxically, increase the threats it faces. Elevated demand for rare species (and products derived from them) can stimulate illegal collection even in the face of the rising costs/penalties associated with finding them. More subtle threats arise through increased disturbance to rare species from activities such as wildlife photography and ecotourism. We present models and empirical evidence to demonstrate how the positive feedback between species rarity and the value we place in it can result in species extinction via a hitherto unrecognized mechanism: the anthropogenic Allee effect.

Key words: extinction, Allee effects, ecological economics