welcome to bsci 363 / cons 670! the biology of conservation and extinction instructor: dr. david...

Welcome to BSCI 363 / CONS 670!The Biology of CONSERVATION and EXTINCTION

• Instructor: Dr. David Inouye

• Instructor: Dr. Manuel Morales

• Teaching Assistant: Tashi Wangchuk

• www.life.umd.edu/classroom/bsci363

Course Mechanics

I. CONSERVATION BIOLOGY: PHILOSOPHY AND DEFINITIONS (MM)

II. EXTINCTIONS PAST AND PRESENT (MM)III. BIOLOGY OF SMALL POPULATIONS (MM)IV. THE ECOLOGY OF CONSERVATION AND

EXTINCTION (MM)V. STRATEGIES FOR CONSERVATIONISTS

(MM / DI)VI. MAJOR THREATS TO BIODIVERSITY (DI)VII. ECONOMICS AND POLITICS (DI)

Golden langur

Capped langur

Monkeys from Bhutan

Your Grade . . .

• Midterm exam: 25%

• Term Paper: 30%

• Short Projects and Participation: 15%

• Final exam: 30%

Reading Assignment

• BSCI: Chapters 1 in Primack

• CONS: Chapters 1-2 in M&C

Current Events

Gaur (Indian bison)

-30,000 left, in India and Southeast Asia-Cloned from skin cells of a male that died 8 years ago-Borne by a surrogate mother cow (1 of 42 implanted, but only 8 became pregnant, one gave birth)

IUCN 2000 Red List of Threatened Species

• Critically endangered mammals: increased from 169 to 180 in the past 5 years

• 24% of world’s mammal species threatened• 11,046 species of plants and animals are

threatened• In the past 500 years humans have caused at

least 816 species to extinction• 103 bird species extinct in the past 200 years

Habitat loss in the Amazon

Optimistic and non-optimistic scenarios for forest degradation by 2020.

• 12% of bird species are threatened• 116 species of primates threatened (up from

96 five years ago)

• Only 15% of reptiles and amphibians have been evaluated (25% are threatened)

• Only 10% of fish have been evaluated (30% are threatened)

• Only a fraction of invertebrates have been evaluated

• Only 4% of plants have been evaluated

A local example ofspecies of concern

Another species of local concern – horseshoe crabs

Used for bait in eel and conch traps, and for biomedical research

Blue crab harvests are down and stocks are near historic lows.

Crabbers are harvesting smaller crabs, and finding fewer spawning females.

The striped bass (rockfish) fishery is a local conservation success story.

White tail deer – a conservation problem with overpopulation