Hydra effect

Most notably, scientists have proposed that ecological systems can exhibit a hydra effect when "a higher death rate in a particular species ultimately increases the size of its population".

The hypothesis is suggested to have implications for the eradication of pests, and resource management.

[1] The hydra effect has also been used about negative outcomes when shutting down torrent sites which come back in more incarnations, and is cited by those opposing the war on drugs, COVID-19 lockdowns, and targeted killing as counter-productive effects.

[6] Similarly, after the torrent website The Pirate Bay was shut down in December 2014, it reincarnated with hundreds of copies within a week.

[7] When Nintendo took legal action against the Switch emulator Yuzu in 2024, numerous forks emerged owing to its open-source nature,[8] though they too were also subject to cease-and-desist orders from the company due to their eventual ownership of the original Yuzu code.