An interesting research effort via the USGS asks Could Species Conservation be Key to Winning a College Football National Championship? This via the USGS… Believe it or not, sports analysts may want to pay attention to a different set of rankings—the endangered species list. In fact, by studying the work that USGS scientists have conducted on endangered species, the outcomes of many teams this season could have been accurately – though not statistically — anticipated.
There are a number of team mascots in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Football Bowl Subdivision that have their real-animal counterparts classified as an “endangered” or “threatened” species. Unfortunately for these teams, their season’s winning percentages were at high risk well before the opening kickoff.
So, teams may want to consider using mascots that aren’t endangered!
There are roughly 42 remaining tiger populations around Asia. Naturally, some populations are stronger in numbers with greater depth than others. Historically, tigers were spread throughout Asia; as little as a century ago, there were roughly 50,000-80,000 tigers in India alone. Today the estimated number of tigers worldwide is under 3,500 USGS science is helping wildlife managers produce more accurate population estimates of this elusive cat through statistical techniques such as capture-recapture estimation models.