Updating IUCN status of data deficient species?
Hi all,
I’m wondering if anyone reading this might have experience with updating wildlife protections for small mammals, and if so what it would entail. I’m based in the Pacific Northwest, and here we have several small mammals that I believe would be protected by more rigorous conservation standards if the status of their populations were better understood.
During a recent revision of the Oregon Conservation Strategy (OCS) I was able to get a freshwater clam added to the Species of Greatest Conservation Need list. It seemed like the species had been overlooked in previous OCS lists, as the literature was clear on it being a regionally rare species with a high risk of extirpation connected to land development. A major component of getting it listed was simply a researcher taking interest in the species and investigating the literature enough to support the notion that addition to the list would be warranted.
Small mammals and less “charismatic” organisms seem particularly susceptible to these blind spots, and I’m wondering if there’s something we could collectively do to remedy that. Sorex bendirii almost certainly needs to have its status in the US revised, as well as its IUCN status. Microdipodops pallidus also seems like it could be a candidate particularly with mineral extraction ramping up in the region it is endemic to.
Is demonstrating inbreeding in a rare species through genomics enough to support a conservation status change or do intensive field surveys also need to be performed?
If anyone on here has dealt with these systems (particularly with IUCN) or knows of other species that seem to have been overlooked by conservation and land management agencies, I’d love to hear more about it.
Cheers,
Daniel
p.s. I was ecstatic to see this site existed! Mammal watching has become one of my favorite hobbies, it’s great to see there are others that travel to look at rodents. Never understood why birdwatching is so popular but not mammal watching.
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