Two isolated Sumatran tiger subpopulations. Each risks local extinction independently. You can protect one, monitor one, or neglect both — but not all at once. Imperfect surveys mean you can't always tell which populations remain.
Model & Rules
Based on McDonald-Madden et al. (2011) two-population tiger conservation triage model. Each population independently faces extinction risk ~8.8% per step without protection.
4 hidden states: which of the two populations are extant
4 actions: Protect Pop 1, Protect Pop 2, Protect Both, Do Nothing
Observations: Imperfect surveys tell you which populations appear present (but missed detections occur)
Goal: Maximize population persistence over 10 steps
Key trade-off: Protecting both costs more. Can you tell which population is at greater risk?
Keys: 1 Protect P1 · 2 Protect P2 · 3 Protect Both · 4 Do Nothing · B belief · R reset