Transcript 1. Intro (good)

How many do we save …?
Why should we conserve anything?
4 / 15 / 2009 – Endangered Species Act
Species Recovery
Plans
Endangered
Threatened
Total
Mammals
Birds
Reptiles
Amphibians
Fishes
Snails
Clams
Crustac
Insects
Arachnids
Plants
325
254
79
22
85
25
64
19
51
12
601
33
21
40
12
66
11
8
3
10
0
148
358
275
119
34
151
36
72
22
61
12
749
55
85
38
17
102
30
70
18
40
12
664
TOTAL
1,537
352
1,889
1,131
(589)
Endangered Species by State
http://www.endangeredspecie.com/map.htm
For many reasons a habitat, community, or
ecosystem level approach would be the more
astute thing to do,
however, at present there are too many economic
and legal blockades to such an approach
- at present only 1.6-2.5% of the land is in
preserve or protected
We could choose to preserve
habitats, ecosystems, and biomes ..
BUT,
Well, like I already said, at present there are too
many economic and legal blockades to such an
approach.
SO,
Therefore, we take a single-species approach, and
because we take a single-species approach we need to
choose species carefully, given that there are so many
endangered species and so little money.
Yeah .. We wish.
When Choosing a Species
The Criteria should be as following:
•
Likelihood of extinction
•
Likelihood that we can help the
species
•
Taxonomic distinctiveness
•
Ecological “key” species
•
“Flagship” species (e.g., spotted
owl)
Population viability analysis also supports the contention that protection is
coming too late for most species.
For example:
the IUCN Captive Breeding Specialist
Group
recommends that captive populations be
established for
vertebrate species with
wild populations below 1000 individuals.