Browsing by Subject "Endangered species"

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    A Habitat Suitability Model for Ricord’s Iguana in the Dominican Republic
    (2009-06-23T20:28:12Z) Dine, James; Wilson, Jeffrey S. (Jeffrey Scott), 1967-; Banerjee, Aniruddha; Ramer, Jan
    The West Indian iguanas of the genus Cyclura are the most endangered group of lizards in the world (Burton & Bloxam, 2002). The Ricord’s iguana, Cyclura ricordii, is listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) (Ramer, 2004). This species is endemic to the island of Hispaniola (Figure 1), and can only be found in limited geographic areas (Burton & Bloxam, 2002). The range of this species is estimated to be only 60% of historical levels, with most areas being affected by some level of disturbance (Ottenwalder, 1996). The most recent population estimation is between 2,000 and 4,000 individuals (Burton & Bloxam, 2002). Information on potentially suitable habitat can help the conservation efforts for Ricord’s iguana. However, intensive ground surveys are not always feasible or cost effective, and cannot easily provide continuous coverage over a large area. This paper presents results from a pilot study that evaluated variables extracted from satellite imagery and digitally mapped data layers to map the probability of suitable Ricord’s iguana habitat. Bayesian methods were used to determine the probability that each pixel in the study areas is suitable habitat for Ricord’s iguanas by evaluating relevant environmental attributes. This model predicts the probability that an area is suitable habitat based on the values of the environmental attributes including landscape biophysical characteristics, terrain data, and bioclimatic variables.
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    The importance of Indigenous Peoples’ lands for the conservation of terrestrial mammals
    (Wiley, 2021-06) O’Bryan, Christopher J.; Garnett, Stephen T.; Fa, Julia E.; Leiper, Ian; Rehbein, Jose A.; Fernández-Llamazares, Álvaro; Jackson, Micha V.; Jonas, Harry D.; Brondizio, Eduardo S.; Burgess, Neil D.; Robinson, Catherine J.; Zander, Kerstin K.; Molnár, Zsolt; Venter, Oscar; Watson, James E.M.; Anthropology, School of Liberal Arts
    Indigenous Peoples’ lands cover over one‐quarter of Earth's surface, a significant proportion of which is still free from industrial‐level human impacts. As a result, Indigenous Peoples and their lands are crucial for the long‐term persistence of Earth's biodiversity and ecosystem services. Yet, information on species composition on these lands globally remains largely unknown. We conducted the first comprehensive analysis of terrestrial mammal composition across mapped Indigenous lands based on data on area of habitat (AOH) for 4460 mammal species assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. We overlaid each species’ AOH on a current map of Indigenous lands and found that 2695 species (60% of assessed mammals) had ≥10% of their ranges on Indigenous Peoples’ lands and 1009 species (23%) had >50% of their ranges on these lands. For threatened species, 473 (47%) occurred on Indigenous lands with 26% having >50% of their habitat on these lands. We also found that 935 mammal species (131 categorized as threatened) had ≥ 10% of their range on Indigenous Peoples’ lands that had low human pressure. Our results show how important Indigenous Peoples’ lands are to the successful implementation of conservation and sustainable development agendas worldwide.