Reindeer & Malthus

The number of Reindeer on St Matthew Island was 29 in 1944. By the early 1960's the population was 6000. A few years later, and after a hard winter, the population crashed to 42.

Thomas Malthus (1766 – 1834) believed that the human population would grow faster than the food supply: "The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man". He has been proved wrong so far (for humans), but St Matthew's Island is an example of where he might be right (and the poster child for people inclined to a dieoff/overshoot/collapse viewpoint).

See also:

• THE INTRODUCTION, INCREASE, AND CRASH OF REINDEER ON ST. MATTHEW ISLAND
• Wikipedia: Thomas Robert Malthus