TY - JOUR
T1 - A global reptile assessment highlights shared conservation needs of tetrapods
AU - Cox, Neil
AU - Young, Bruce E.
AU - Bowles, Philip
AU - Fernandez, Miguel
AU - Marin, Julie
AU - Rapacciuolo, Giovanni
AU - Böhm, Monika
AU - Brooks, Thomas M.
AU - Hedges, S. Blair
AU - Hilton-Taylor, Craig
AU - Hoffmann, Michael
AU - Jenkins, Richard K.B.
AU - Tognelli, Marcelo F.
AU - Alexander, Graham J.
AU - Allison, Allen
AU - Ananjeva, Natalia B.
AU - Auliya, Mark
AU - Avila, Luciano Javier
AU - Chapple, David G.
AU - Cisneros-Heredia, Diego F.
AU - Cogger, Harold G.
AU - Colli, Guarino R.
AU - de Silva, Anslem
AU - Eisemberg, Carla C.
AU - Els, Johannes
AU - Fong G, Ansel
AU - Grant, Tandora D.
AU - Hitchmough, Rodney A.
AU - Iskandar, Djoko T.
AU - Kidera, Noriko
AU - Martins, Marcio
AU - Meiri, Shai
AU - Mitchell, Nicola J.
AU - Molur, Sanjay
AU - Nogueira, Cristiano de C.
AU - Ortiz, Juan Carlos
AU - Penner, Johannes
AU - Rhodin, Anders G.J.
AU - Rivas, Gilson A.
AU - Rödel, Mark Oliver
AU - Roll, Uri
AU - Sanders, Kate L.
AU - Santos-Barrera, Georgina
AU - Shea, Glenn M.
AU - Spawls, Stephen
AU - Stuart, Bryan L.
AU - Tolley, Krystal A.
AU - Trape, Jean François
AU - Vidal, Marcela A.
AU - Wagner, Philipp
AU - Wallace, Bryan P.
AU - Xie, Yan
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank the 961 Red List assessors (listed in Supplementary Note ); the organizers of workshops in United Arab Emirates (D. Mallon), Fiji (H. Pippard) and Colombia (B. Bock and V. Páez); the co-principal investigators of NSF award 1136586 (G. Costa, C. Graham and V. Radeloff); and J. Chanson, D. Bennett, N. Garcia, H. Hamilton, D. Hole, D. Juhn, A. Kenlan, M. Mascia, R. Mittermeier, M. Ormes, J. P. Ross, J. P. Rodriguez, J. Rodriguez, J. Smart, S. Stuart, P. Uetz and J.-C. Vié. Funding was provided by Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica-Fondo para la Investigación Científica y Tecnológica RC 2014-0116 (L.J.A.); the Australian Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment; the Australian Research Council; B. and G. Moore; Charles Darwin University; Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico; Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior; the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi; Environment and Protected Areas Authority of Sharjah; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo grants 2015/20215-7 (C.d.C.N.) and 2020/12658-4 (M.M.); Fundação de Apoio à Pesquisa do Distrito Federal; Global Protected Area Friendly System; IBAT—The Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool; Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade; IUCN; Ministério do Meio Ambiente; the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund; Monash University; Museum für Naturkunde; National Science Foundation grants 1136586 (B.E.Y. and T.M.B.), 1455761 (S.B.H.) and 1932765 (S.B.H.); the Rainforest Trust; the Regina Bauer Frankenberg Foundation; the Rufford Foundation; San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance; Secretaría de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación; the Society of Entrepreneurs and Ecology Foundation; the South African National Biodiversity Institute; Species Survival Commission; Toyota Motor Corporation through the IUCN-Toyota Red List Partnership; US Fish and Wildlife Service; Universidad del Bío-Bío; Universidad San Francisco de Quito; University of Western Australia; Wildlife Reserves Singapore; World Wildlife Fund; Zoological Institute, St Petersburg theme 122031100282-2; and Zoological Society of London.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).
PY - 2022/5/12
Y1 - 2022/5/12
N2 - Comprehensive assessments of species’ extinction risks have documented the extinction crisis1 and underpinned strategies for reducing those risks2. Global assessments reveal that, among tetrapods, 40.7% of amphibians, 25.4% of mammals and 13.6% of birds are threatened with extinction3. Because global assessments have been lacking, reptiles have been omitted from conservation-prioritization analyses that encompass other tetrapods4–7. Reptiles are unusually diverse in arid regions, suggesting that they may have different conservation needs6. Here we provide a comprehensive extinction-risk assessment of reptiles and show that at least 1,829 out of 10,196 species (21.1%) are threatened—confirming a previous extrapolation8 and representing 15.6 billion years of phylogenetic diversity. Reptiles are threatened by the same major factors that threaten other tetrapods—agriculture, logging, urban development and invasive species—although the threat posed by climate change remains uncertain. Reptiles inhabiting forests, where these threats are strongest, are more threatened than those in arid habitats, contrary to our prediction. Birds, mammals and amphibians are unexpectedly good surrogates for the conservation of reptiles, although threatened reptiles with the smallest ranges tend to be isolated from other threatened tetrapods. Although some reptiles—including most species of crocodiles and turtles—require urgent, targeted action to prevent extinctions, efforts to protect other tetrapods, such as habitat preservation and control of trade and invasive species, will probably also benefit many reptiles.
AB - Comprehensive assessments of species’ extinction risks have documented the extinction crisis1 and underpinned strategies for reducing those risks2. Global assessments reveal that, among tetrapods, 40.7% of amphibians, 25.4% of mammals and 13.6% of birds are threatened with extinction3. Because global assessments have been lacking, reptiles have been omitted from conservation-prioritization analyses that encompass other tetrapods4–7. Reptiles are unusually diverse in arid regions, suggesting that they may have different conservation needs6. Here we provide a comprehensive extinction-risk assessment of reptiles and show that at least 1,829 out of 10,196 species (21.1%) are threatened—confirming a previous extrapolation8 and representing 15.6 billion years of phylogenetic diversity. Reptiles are threatened by the same major factors that threaten other tetrapods—agriculture, logging, urban development and invasive species—although the threat posed by climate change remains uncertain. Reptiles inhabiting forests, where these threats are strongest, are more threatened than those in arid habitats, contrary to our prediction. Birds, mammals and amphibians are unexpectedly good surrogates for the conservation of reptiles, although threatened reptiles with the smallest ranges tend to be isolated from other threatened tetrapods. Although some reptiles—including most species of crocodiles and turtles—require urgent, targeted action to prevent extinctions, efforts to protect other tetrapods, such as habitat preservation and control of trade and invasive species, will probably also benefit many reptiles.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85128854340&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41586-022-04664-7
DO - 10.1038/s41586-022-04664-7
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85128854340
SN - 0028-0836
VL - 605
SP - 285
EP - 290
JO - Nature
JF - Nature
ER -