Guide to Cryptids. Minimum Viable Population

Minimum Viable Population (MVP) is such an important concept in cryptozoology that every book on cryptids must begin with a chapter on MVP – or at least put this chapter before proceeding to cover/investigate every cryptid.

Alas, no book does – and for understandable reason. Because if you insert MVP into the description and analysis of a cryptid you will immediately prove beyond the reasonable doubt that the cryptid in question simply can not exist.

Minimum viable population (MVP) is a lower bound on the population of a species, such that it can survive in the wild. This term is commonly used in the fields of biology, ecology, and conservation biology.

MVP refers to the smallest possible size at which a biological population can exist without facing extinction from natural disasters or demographic, environmental, or genetic stochasticity.

The term "population" is defined as a group of interbreeding individuals in similar geographic area that undergo negligible gene flow with other groups of the species. Typically, MVP is used to refer to a wild population, but can also be used for ex situ conservation (Zoo populations).

It is a well-established biological fact that the minimum sustainable size of mammal population of a species is 50 individuals. Fifty. If the number of animals in the species drops below 50, it gets extinct. Period. And this is for small to medium size mammals – Bigfoot MVP in the given area is 500 (some say 1,000).

There is no way the “tribe” of this size can generate so few sightings in the era of drones, LIDAR and other tools that make escaping detection all but impossible.

Hence, the only species that still remain undetected (cryptids in flesh-and-blood) are rather small and live in really remote and difficult-to-access areas (obviously, these are very, very few).

All other cryptids are apparitions, ultraterrestrials, hoaxes… anything but real, visible, tangible animals in flesh-and-blood.