The optimal timing of reintroducing captive populations into the wild

TL;DR

This paper develops a bioeconomic model to determine the optimal timing for reintroducing captive populations into the wild, balancing costs and population viability, with application to the endangered black-footed ferret.

Contribution

It introduces a novel bioeconomic model focusing on reintroduction timing as a control variable, differing from traditional models that target population adjustments.

Findings

Early reintroduction is generally optimal under certain conditions.

The model accounts for species interactions and provisioning services.

Reintroduction timing significantly impacts conservation costs and success.

Abstract

We examine a conservation problem in which the recovery of an endangered species depends on a captive breeding and reintroduction program. The model is applied to the case of the black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes), an endangered species in North America reliant on captive breeding for survival. The timing of reintroduction is an important concern in these programs as there is a tradeoff between the duration (and therefore the cost) of the captive breeding program and the period the population spends in recovery and in the wild. In this paper, we develop a stylized bioeconomic model to determine the optimal reintroduction time, in which the objective is to minimize the cost of reintroduction while providing a viably-sized population in the wild. Our control variable is the timing of reintroduction, which departs from a large body of work in bioeconomics that focuses on adjustable controls that directly affect the target population. Generally, we find it is optimal to reintroduce ferrets early in a reintroduction program, although this result is contingent on species interactions and provisioning services.