Identifying at-risk mammal species beyond current endangered species classifications

¶ … Extinction Risk and the Future Battlegrounds of Mammal Conservation.

Cardillo M, Mace GM, Gittleman JL, and Purvis a. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 103 (11); 2006: 4152-4161.

The research involved testing a specific hypothesis through predictive modeling techniques in conjunction with existing factual knowledge. That hypothesis was that current perceptions about which species are in the greatest danger of extinction are somewhat inaccurate. More particularly, the identification of endangered or threatened species is largely based on the degree to which those species have already suffered and begun to exhibit substantially declining numbers.

However, the research actually demonstrated that this approach to identifying endangered species is too exclusive because it does not account for any species that have not already been adversely affected by the principal causes of species endangerment (namely, human encroachment). Instead, conservation perspectives and conservation efforts should include those species that have not yet been threatened only because their natural habitats have not yet been harmed by human activity. Some of those species are especially vulnerable to disturbances in their habitat and are just as likely to be threatened once human activity affects them.

Relevance to Conservation Objectives

The principal relevance of the study is that it demonstrates that current beliefs about which mammalian species are at risk of extinction in the near future are inaccurate. In addition to those currently identified as being at greatest risk, there are other species that are equally at risk of extinction within the same time frame but they are still unrecognized and not considered in conservation philosophy and plans. To the extent conservation objectives relate to improving the survivability of threatened species, the study is especially important because it provides a better means of identifying all of those species that should receive protection and research into their preservation.

Relevance to Course Issues

We learned (among other things) that natural habitats are the product of so many specific relationships, phenomena, and delicate balances that it can be extremely difficult to predict the way that human activity might disrupt those natural habitats. We also learned that once a habitat is adversely affected by industrial activity, it can be damaged irreparably. It would seem that those realities and the impacts of this research study would suggest that it would make much more sense from a conservation perspective to use the principle demonstrated by this data to prevent habitat changes that could ultimately result in the destruction of delicate species before it occurs rather than waiting until those natural habitats are so damaged by human activity that they reveal themselves in harm to species that might by irreparable by the time they are noticed through traditional measures.