Rare species are valued big time

Abstract

Background: It has recently been postulated that the value humans place on rarity could cause the extinction of rare species. This is because people are willing to pay the high costs of exploiting the last individuals. Many hobbies, such as ecotourism or the keeping of exotic pets may cause this effect--known as the anthropogenic Allee effect. However, the entire theory relies on the insofar undemonstrated assumption that people do value rarity.

Methodology/principal findings: In order to quantify how much people valued rare species relative to common ones, we created online slideshows of photographs of either rare or common species on an Internet web site. The slideshow with photographs of rare species attracted more visitors, and visitors spent, in general, more time waiting to view it.

Conclusions/significance: We provide evidence that people value rare more than common species. As we did not target consumers of a specific market, this finding suggests that the anthropogenic Allee effect is likely be driven by a large part of the population. Given the substantial participation in our online experiment, we highlight the potential of the world wide web resource as a tool for conservation action. However, the evidence presented here that the general public value rare species, combined with the assumption that anthropogenic Allee effect is operating, implies that conservationists should be prudent when using rarity to promote conservation.

Figure 1. Behaviour of visitors having to choose between slideshows of rare or common species.

We show (A) attractiveness, (B) patience and (C) perseverance of visitors. Data comes from visitors who attempted to open only one slideshow type, once (1) or multiple times (>1), or their first choice when they attempted to open both slideshows (>1 both). Error bars indicate standard errors.

Figure 2. Effect of the slideshow type (rare or common species) on the time spent by visitors.

We show data for attempts shorter than 6 minutes and for attempts between 6 minutes and 4 complete hours. Error bars indicate standard errors.