Drake's results underscore the importance of bolstering extinction models with empirical validation--and of accounting for population density--to accurately evaluate risk and enhance recovery programs for at-risk populations. As threats to endangered species continue to mount, biologists will need ever more robust methods to estimate extinction risk. Unfortunately, field biologists typically can't generate the large, high-quality datasets that led to the precise predictions reported here. Conservation efforts will depend on developing methods of generating reliable predictions with the limited data available from the field.
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Citation: Drake JM (2005) Density-dependent demographic variation determines extinction rate of experimental populations. PLoS Biol 3(7): e222.