MELBOURNE — A new study co-authored by researchers from Australia's Monash University and Britain's Zoological Society of London reveals that wildlife populations with fewer than 50 individuals in the wild can successfully recover from the brink of extinction through targeted conservation efforts.
Published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the research challenges long-standing ecological theories suggesting that severely bottlenecked animal populations inevitably collapse due to inbreeding and a loss of genetic diversity. The study examined 141 bird and mammal species whose wild populations fell below 50 individuals after 1950.
According to the findings, 61 percent of the 51 species that received direct conservation measures—such as captive breeding, translocations, habitat restoration, and invasive predator control—recovered to at least 100 individuals. Conversely, only 2 percent of species that received no direct support recovered to that threshold, while 37 percent of unsupported species went extinct.
Researchers highlighted that combining threat reduction with direct population management yields the highest success rates. For example, Australia's Lord Howe woodhen rebounded from just 23 birds in the late 1970s to a population exceeding 1,600 today.
Lead author Donal Smith noted that a small population size alone should not dictate whether conservation funding and intervention continue, emphasizing that small populations demonstrate a striking capacity for recovery when external pressures are actively addressed.
