people like to point out the obvious similarities between cowboys, vampires, and pirates (all of which are gay, live outside normal societal standards, and are hyper-sexualized) but considering cowboys are the only surviving ones out of the three, it brings into the question why the other two species went extinct.
now, considering vampires are thought to be from transylvania, pirates are naturally seafaring, and cowboys are found in the wild west, it's more likely that the three are an example of convergent evolution or are three functionally distinct species that fit into the same biological niche in the food chain, rather than being regional variations of the same species.
now, the extinction of pirates and vampires is largely credited to humans, but each for different reasons. pirates seem to not be their own distinct species from normal sailors, but rather specific individuals or "ships," as groups of pirates are called, that engage in plundering behaviors. it's not entirely understood what causes these behaviors, but theories exist. pirates likely went extinct as the biological trigger for a sailor to become a pirate stopped triggering. this may be due to the decline of wooden ships, the heightening of security among regular sailors, or a nimber of variables togther.
vampires, on the other hand, were hunted to extinction purposefully by europeans, and despite the rumors of an existing population living in north america, we have yet to prove that vampires even made it to north america, much less have a survivable population theiving somewhere. vampires were mainly hunted throughout the 19th century due to victorean stigma regarding the consumption of blood, and despite the notion that vampires were typically preying on cattle, the fear of them attacking humans fueled vampire hunts and propoganda reporting vampires.
now, cowboys are an interesting case. the population of cowboys boomed in the 19th century, but due to modern industrialization they've been on a steady decline for the past 50 years. cowboys are on the threatened species list, but are far from endangered, and considering their more recent acclimation to industrial life and the lack of "outlaw" cowboys in modern day, they seem to have left the niche they evolved to fit.
