Title
Conservation status of the world’s reptiles
Publication Date
12-1-2012
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Effective conservation action requires knowledge of the distribution of threatened species and the threat processes affecting them. We present the first global assessment of extinction risk for a random representative sample of 1,500 reptile species. We find strong variation in extinction risk by taxonomic groups and geographic regions, with the most threatened reptiles associated with freshwater environments, tropical regions, and oceanic islands. Extinction risk is predominantly associated with habitat loss and over-exploitation. Our results emphasize the need for research attention to be focussed on tropical areas, which are seeing the highest extinction risk, and fossorial reptiles, for which there is a chronic lack of data.
Comments
Böhm M, Collen B, Baillie JEM, Bowles P, Chanson J, Cox N, Hammerson G, Hoffmann M, Livingstone SR, Ram M, et al. The conservation status of the world’s reptiles. Biological Conservation 2013 January 2013;157:372-85.