The Great Hanoi Rat Massacre of 1902 Did Not Go as Planned (2017)

HAH, I recall, in London UK, the Colorado potato beetle invaded the UK. A serious pest, soon a 5 pound bounty was offered for each dead beetle - thousands went to the fields. Thousands discovered you could breed them at home on potato greens - which were easily found at any farm. Soon thousands were handed in for the bounty. This cat soon escaped the bag and the bounty decreased and ended and the DDT was applied... (apologies - I love cats and never bag them)

Similar happened with opium poppies in Afghanistan iirc - paid money to burn opium fields, meant that farmer planted more opium fields.

Then when they stopped being paid to destroy them the farmer returned to selling the opium from the fields they’d already planted.

More examples of the Cobra Effect are listed here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse_incentive

The “payment for hominim skull fragments” seems particularly poorly thought-out. (“We’ll pay you for any hominim skull fragment” “Ok, I’ll smash any skulls I find into the smallest [and most numerous] fragments you’ll accept!”)