Escalator to Extinction: Mountain Reserve Climate Tracking

A protected area drawn on a map is a fixed boundary, but the climate inside it is not. This simulator models a species living on a mountain inside a nature reserve, tracking its narrow band of comfortable temperature as global warming pushes that band upslope at the environmental lapse rate. Tune the warming rate, how far up the mountain the reserve's legal protection actually extends, and the species' thermal tolerance, then watch the comfort band — and a live population of instanced individuals riding inside it — climb toward the summit. When the band outruns the reserve boundary, or the mountain itself runs out of elevation, the population collapses: the real "escalator to extinction" dynamic documented for tropical mountain birds and alpine specialists.