Con Bio

My conservation biology guys and I will be discussing this topic later, but this is an interesting illustration of a key concept. Work examining extinction patterns for a number of large mammals in India has discovered that the current state of protected areas in the nation will not allow many of the species to survive the 21st Century. The study, appearing online in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B and summarized here at Science Daily, attempted to determine the probability of extinction for 25 species, some of them on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. d extinction probabilities for a range of species. It looked at species considered endangered or critically endangered on the 2009 International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species and some of them species of least concern.

The group drew on a large database to examine the effect of a range of factors on extinction probabilities. They found that protected areas were among the most significant factors lowering extinction risk, along with greater proportions of forest cover. Human population density was a key factor associated with increased extinction risk. Particularly interesting, though perhaps not surprising, is that our perception of a species has a lot to do with its probability of making it or not. Species that are perceived as non-threatening have a better chance.

Speaks well for our chances of saving the cute guys. But what about tigers?