• Slide number 0
    African lion (Pan­thera leo)
  • Slide number 1
    Chee­tah (Aci­nonyx juba­tus)
  • Slide number 2
    Clouded leop­ard (Neo­fe­lis neb­u­losa) | more info
  • Slide number 3
    Euro­pean wild­cat (Felis sil­vestris)
  • Slide number 4
    Jaguar (Pan­thera onca)
  • Slide number 5
    Jaguarundi (Her­pail­u­rus yagouaroundi)
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    Puma, Moun­tain lion, Cougar (Puma con­color)
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    Ocelot (Leop­ar­dus pardalis)
  • Slide number 8
    Pal­las’ cat, Manul (Oto­colobus manul)
  • Slide number 9
    Sand cat (Felis mar­garita)
  • Slide number 10
    Ser­val (Lep­tail­u­rus ser­val)
  • Slide number 11
    Snow leop­ard (Pan­thera uncia) | more info
  • Slide number 12
    South Chines tiger (Pan­thera tigris ssp. amoyen­sis)

201301Jul20:11

Map­ping out how to save species

Infor­ma­tion
pub­lished 01 July 2013 | mod­i­fied 30 May 2014
Archived

Animal species worldmap coloursIn stun­ning colour, new bio­di­ver­sity research from North Car­olina State Uni­ver­sity (NCSU) maps out pri­or­ity areas world­wide that hold the key to pro­tect­ing vul­ner­a­ble species and focus­ing con­ser­va­tion efforts.

The research, pub­lished online on 26 June in Pro­ceed­ings of the National Acad­emy of Sci­ences, pin­points the high­est global con­cen­tra­tions of mam­mals, amphib­ians and birds on a scale that’s 100 times finer than pre­vi­ous assess­ments. The find­ings can be used to make the most of avail­able con­ser­va­tion resources, said Dr. Clin­ton Jenk­ins, lead author and research scholar at NCSU.

The choice of which areas in the world receive pro­tec­tion will ulti­mately decide which species sur­vive and which go extinct. We need the best avail­able sci­ence to guide these decisions.
Dr Stu­art Pimm, co-​author, Duke University »

“We must know where indi­vid­ual species live, which ones are vul­ner­a­ble, and where human actions threaten them,” Jenk­ins said. “We have bet­ter data than in the past — and bet­ter ana­lyt­i­cal meth­ods. Now we have mar­ried them for con­ser­va­tion purposes.”

To assess how well the bright-​red pri­or­ity areas are being pro­tected, researchers cal­cu­lated the per­cent­age of pri­or­ity areas that fell within exist­ing pro­tected zones. They pro­duced colour­ful maps that offer a snap­shot of world­wide efforts to pro­tect ver­te­brate species and pre­serve bio­di­ver­sity. More maps are avail­able in high res­o­lu­tion on the Sav­ing Species blog.

“The most impor­tant bio­di­ver­sity areas do have a higher rate of pro­tec­tion than the global aver­age. Unfor­tu­nately, it is still insuf­fi­cient given how impor­tant these areas are,” said co-​author Dr. Lucas Joppa with Microsoft Research in Cam­bridge, Eng­land. “There is a grow­ing worry that we are run­ning out of time to expand the global net­work of pro­tected areas.”

Researchers hope their work can guide expan­sion of pro­tected areas before it’s too late.

(Source: North Car­olina State Uni­ver­sity media release, 27.06.2013)

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Goal: 7000 tigers in the wild

Tiger range countries map

Tiger map” (CC BY 2.5) by Sander­son et al., 2006.

about zoos and their mis­sion regard­ing breed­ing endan­gered species, nature con­ser­va­tion, bio­di­ver­sity and edu­ca­tion, which of course relates to the evo­lu­tion of species.
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