 Of course, Lande’s metapopulation model is clearly abstracted and idealized. However, he argued that his model was consistent with the data and that his predictions were more conservative than that of a more realistic model. First, he argued that the data showed that the annual geometric growth rate of the northern spotted was not significantly different from equilibrium (e.g., \(0.96 \pm0.03\), see Lande 1988a: 605). Second, if we assume that owls have difficulty finding mates, or dispersal is more limited, or there is demographic or environmental stochasticity, this would reduce \(k\) even further.