Search

Reptiles are the most species-rich group of terrestrial vertebrates, yet we lack a comprehensive understanding of their extinction risk. Only 45% of described reptile species have been assessed by IUCN to date (4648 of 10,400 species); of these, 20% (945 species) are threatened with extinction, and 19% (867 species) are Data Deficient. The goal of this special issue is to improve our understanding of reptile conservation needs and extinction risk by (i) investigating patterns and drivers of extinction risk and data deficiency at a global scale; (ii) identifying and addressing taxonomic and regional gaps in our understanding of extinction risk and data deficiency; and (iii) drawing upon detailed case studies to highlight conservation approaches to mitigate extinction. By doing so, the special issue will guide future conservation efforts toward the taxa and regions in greatest need of assessment, and toward risks requiring immediate mitigation. We conclude with potential avenues for future research, including the need to address regional knowledge gaps, conduct macroecological and retrospective analyses of extinction risk, and implement targeted monitoring of conservation intervention outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reptiles are the most species-rich group of terrestrial vertebrates, yet we lack a comprehensive understanding of their extinction risk. Only 45% of described reptile species have been assessed by IUCN to date (4648 of 10,400 species); of these, 20% (945 species) are threatened with extinction, and 19% (867 species) are Data Deficient. The goal of this special issue is to improve our understanding of reptile conservation needs and extinction risk by (i) investigating patterns and drivers of extinction risk and data deficiency at a global scale; (ii) identifying and addressing taxonomic and regional gaps in our understanding of extinction risk and data deficiency; and (iii) drawing upon detailed case studies to highlight conservation approaches to mitigate extinction. By doing so, the special issue will guide future conservation efforts toward the taxa and regions in greatest need of assessment, and toward risks requiring immediate mitigation. We conclude with potential avenues for future research, including the need to address regional knowledge gaps, conduct macroecological and retrospective analyses of extinction risk, and implement targeted monitoring of conservation intervention outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern conservation operates at the nexus of biological and social influences. While the importance of social and cultural factors is often mentioned, defining, measuring and comparing these factors remains a significant challenge. Here, we explore a novel method to quantify cultural interest in all extant reptile species using Wikipedia — a large, open-access online encyclopaedia. We analysed all page views of reptile species viewed during 2014 in all of Wikipedia's language editions. We compared species' page view numbers across languages and in relationship to their spatial distribution, phylogeny, threat status and various other biological attributes. We found that the three species with most page views are shared across major language editions, beyond these, page view ranks of species tend to be specific to particular language editions. Interest within a language is mostly focused on reptiles found in the regions where the language is spoken. Overall, interest is greater for reptiles that are venomous, endangered, widely distributed, larger and that have been described earlier. However, within individual reptile families not all the above factors predict page views. Most families contain at least one species in the top 5% of page views, but 29 families (with 1,450 species) have no ‘high interest species’ in them. Overall, our analyses elucidate novel patterns of human interests in nature over large geographical, cultural and taxonomic spectra using big-data techniques. Such approaches hold much promise for incorporating social perceptions in future conservation practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern conservation operates at the nexus of biological and social influences. While the importance of social and cultural factors is often mentioned, defining, measuring and comparing these factors remains a significant challenge. Here, we explore a novel method to quantify cultural interest in all extant reptile species using Wikipedia — a large, open-access online encyclopaedia. We analysed all page views of reptile species viewed during 2014 in all of Wikipedia's language editions. We compared species' page view numbers across languages and in relationship to their spatial distribution, phylogeny, threat status and various other biological attributes. We found that the three species with most page views are shared across major language editions, beyond these, page view ranks of species tend to be specific to particular language editions. Interest within a language is mostly focused on reptiles found in the regions where the language is spoken. Overall, interest is greater for reptiles that are venomous, endangered, widely distributed, larger and that have been described earlier. However, within individual reptile families not all the above factors predict page views. Most families contain at least one species in the top 5% of page views, but 29 families (with 1,450 species) have no ‘high interest species’ in them. Overall, our analyses elucidate novel patterns of human interests in nature over large geographical, cultural and taxonomic spectra using big-data techniques. Such approaches hold much promise for incorporating social perceptions in future conservation practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]