Available at http://planet.uwc.ac.za/nisl/Eco_people/Presentations/

When Is A Species Endangered And Where Should Conservation Efforts Be Placed

Sam Hopkins

Biodiversity and Conservation Biology

An Optional Graphiccan go here

Criteria taken from Cox (1997)

Large species with a low reproductive potential

Species with a high economic value

Species at the end of a long food chain

Species restricted to local, insular habitats

Species that are specialised for habitats, breeding sites or food

Migratory species

What makes species vulnerable to What makes species vulnerable to extinction extinction 11

This is a matter of much discussion

Certain criteria are constructed by the organisations that need to categorise the extinction risk of species

When is a species endangered?When is a species endangered?

IUCN stands for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural resources

They state that the extinction rate is 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than what it should be

They have 9 categories Extinct Extinct in the wild Critically endangered Endangered Vulnerable Near threatened Least concern Data deficient Not evaluated

When is a species endangered? The IUCN criteria When is a species endangered? The IUCN criteria 22

CITES stands for The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora

Signed by 169 countries

Species are placed into 3 appendices

I. Species threatened with extinction

II. Species not threatened but controlled to stop then becoming threatened

III. Species protected by one country and has asked CITES to control trade

When is a species endangered?When is a species endangered?The CITES criteriaThe CITES criteria 33

This is a personal question

Today's society generally has a pragmatic- utilitarian ethic. This means that human success is important and technology will answer any future problems when resources run low. It sees humans and a few animals (pets, whales, dolphins etc.) as primarily important and everything else of secondary importance

At the other end of the scale is the ecocentric ethic where the interests of humans and non-humans are treated equally on some kind of scale, where the lowest end of the scale is everything's right to exist to the highest end which is some kind of satisfaction

Is it also our duty to preserve things for future generations?

Is it our duty to conserve? Is it our duty to conserve? 11

Conservation costs money

Figures so far in America

Northern Spotted owl, $9.7 million

Grizzly bear, $5.9 million

Florida Panther, $4.1million

In the UK if all the plans for conservation were carried out it would cost 800,000 pounds per year for over 15 years

Is it better to put conservation areas to use in agriculture or housing?

Is it our duty to conserve? Is it our duty to conserve? 44

As you have seen from the past few lectures, the world is in an extinction crisis at the moment and it is not possible to conserve everything

The question is, what to conserve?

Do we conserve single large species that in turn will conserve large amounts of habitat for other species?

Do we conserve the genetically distinct animals such as the Tuatara?

Do we conserve ‘hotspots’ of land that will conserve the most numbers of species?

Do we leave species to go extinct as extinction is a natural process?

What to conserve?What to conserve?

It is estimated that to conserve a viable elephant population for 1000 years it would take 1000 miles 2 of land 5

In conserving this piece of land many other species would be conserved as well

However this may not always be the ideal land for conserving large numbers of endangered species if it is the elephants alone that are being concentrated on

On the positive side, people are more likely to give money to save a charismatic creature like an elephant than a snake or beetle

Do we conserve single large species that in turn will conserve large amounts of habitat for other species?

When the Tuatara was discovered it was thought that it was a lizard with an odd skull 6

Now been placed in a group equal to the Squamata (lizards and snakes), Rhynchocephalia 7

The Rhynchocephalia includes several extinct taxa and the two remaining species alive today

Was once widespread but now found only on small islands off New Zealand 8

Has declined due to mammal introduction 8

Is it important to keep these animals alive or should they have gone extinct years ago with all their relatives?

Do we conserve the genetically distinct animals such as the tuatara?

One theory suggests that we should

conserve hotspots of biodiversity

Identify areas with increased species

richness, high numbers of endemic

species and high numbers of rare species9

Do we conserve ‘hotspots’ of land

that will conserve the most numbers of

species?

Areas that are conserved for their large species diversity will probably have a complex habitat allowing large amounts of diversity of other taxa to be conserved as well

Reyers et al. (2000) states that areas that are important to the conservation of one taxon will conserve high levels of diversity of other taxa 11

Do we conserve ‘hotspots’ of land that will conserve the most numbers of species?

- argument for 10

However, often there is a low correlation between high species richness and high endemicity 9

Hotspots for different species rarely overlap 11

Eg. Reyers et al. (2000). Found that species richness hotspots for vertebrates and invertebrates are not the same10

Hotspots may miss a species vital to conservation10

Examples of species that are endemic to an area but not living in a species rich area 9

Pocket gopher (Pappogeomys zinseri)

Perote ground squirrel

Do we conserve ‘hotspots’ of land that will conserve the most numbers of species?

-argument against

The number of species that have become extinct through time is almost equal to the number of originations of species 12

Darwin saw extinction as a process of natural selection 12

This is more a question of how humans see themselves fitting into nature

Are humans part of nature and therefore everything we do is also natural?

Or are we above nature and it is ours to do what we want with

Do we leave species to go extinct as extinction is a natural process?

This is a difficult topic to draw conclusions from

There are many different aspects that need contemplating and answering and it is a personal viewpoint

The general public’s view is often different from the scientific community’s view

As an answer as to what to conserve, Ceballos et al (1998) suggest a scale of priority where highest efforts are placed in conserving endangered species followed by non-endangered species with a small distribution with the lowest efforts being given to species that survive well with humans 9

They do not state how a species is considered endangered and this approach needs much research to establish what is at risk

Conclusions

1. Cox, G. W. (1997) Conservation biology. Pp 287-296

2. IUCN. An IUCN overview. [cited 2006 Jul 10] Available from: www.iucn.org/en/about

3. CITES. What is CITES [cited 2006 Jul 10] Available from: www.CITES.org/eng/disc/what.shtml

4. Spellerberg, I. F. (1996)Conserving biological diversity. In Conservation Biology. Pp 25-31

5. Armbruster, P. and Lande, R. (1993) A population viability analysis for African Elephants (Loxodonta africana): How big should reserve be? Conservation Biology 7: 602-610

6. Bogert, C. M. (1953). The Tuatara: Why is it a lone survivor? The Scientific Monthly 76: 163-170

7. Pough et al. (2001) Herpetology 2nd Ed.

8. Cree et al. (1995). Reproduction of a rare New Zealand reptile, the Tuatara Sphenodon punctatus, on rat free and rat inhabited islands. Conservation Biology 9: 373-383

9. Ceballos, G. et al. (1998). Assessing conservation priorities in mega diverse Mexico: Mammalian diversity, endemicity and endangerment. Ecological Applications 8: 8-17

10. Reyers, et al. (2000). Complementarity as a biodiversity indicator strategy. Proceeding: Biological Sciences 267: 507-513

11. Dobson et al. (1997) Geographic distribution of endangered species in the United States. Science 275: 550-553

12. Raup, D. M. (1994). The Role of Extinction in Evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 91: 6758-6763

References