FIGURE 19.3 Growth and decline of a reindeer population. Humans introduced 25 reindeer to St. Paul Island, Alaska, in 1910. The population initially experienced rapid growth (blue line) that approximated a J-shaped exponential growth curve (orange line). In 1938, the population crashed, probably because the animals exhausted the food supply.

(Data from V. B. Scheffer, “The rise and fall of a reindeer herd,” Scientific Monthly (1951): 356–362.)