More recently, PVA has been described as a marriage of ecology and statistics that brings together species characteristics and environmental variability to forecast population health and extinction risk.
PVA is also used to identify factors that drive population dynamics, compare proposed management options and assess existing recovery efforts.
In 1978, Mark Shaffer proposed a model for the grizzlies that incorporated random variability, and calculated extinction probabilities and minimum viable population size.
The endangered Fender's blue butterfly (Icaricia icarioides) was recently assessed with a goal of providing additional information to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, which was developing a recovery plan for the species.
The PVA concluded that the species was more at risk of extinction than previously thought and identified key sites where recovery efforts should be focused.
Furthermore, extinction risks and future population sizes on both sides of the island were significantly dependent on the number of foxes released and transported each year.
For example, a study comparing PVA model forecasts with the actual fate of 21 well-studied taxa, showed that growth rate projections are accurate, if input variables are based on sound data, but highlighted the importance of understanding density-dependence (Brook et al.
Still, the usefulness of PVA lies more in its capacity to identify and assess potential threats, than in making long-term, categorical predictions (Akçakaya & Sjögren-Gulve 2000).