{"id":291,"date":"2020-08-05T11:51:15","date_gmt":"2020-08-05T15:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/?p=291"},"modified":"2020-08-05T11:51:15","modified_gmt":"2020-08-05T15:51:15","slug":"torrent-frogs-endangered-or-least-concern-who-knows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/2020\/08\/05\/torrent-frogs-endangered-or-least-concern-who-knows\/","title":{"rendered":"Torrent frogs: Endangered or Least Concern, who knows?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Geena Zick<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
A newly discovered species Mantidactylus atsimo. Photo from Plos One<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When you hear a species described as Endangered, do you\nimmediately believe it? What about if you heard a species was common and of Least\nConcern? How do you know species are categorized correctly? For example, tigers\nare categorized as Endangered. Of course, this is true, many people have heard\nit. Tigers are extremely charismatic animals, meaning they are cute and\ntherefore, popular. There is a huge amount of data about them because people\ncare. This large amount of information on tigers makes it easy to categorize\nthem correctly. But what about animals that aren\u2019t as charismatic? Is there\nenough information on them? Can they actually be categorized correctly? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the IUCN?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The International Union for Conservation of Nature\u2019 s (IUCN)\nRed List describes itself as \u201ca critical indicator of the health of the world\u2019s\nbiodiversity\u201d (https:\/\/www.iucnredlist.org\/). The threat status of an animal or\nplant is established by the IUCN. This means that the IUCN has a huge influence\non conservation efforts for certain species. Because of this, it is vital that\neach species is categorized correctly. Although they have categorized many\nspecies correctly and have been a huge conservation help, there are still many\nspecies that are under-researched and under-funded. Species with a lack of\nsufficient data are categorized as Data Deficient. The IUCN discourages\nscientists from describing species as Data Deficient. The IUCN Red List Categories and\nCriteria: Version 3.1<\/a> states, \u201cIt is\nimportant to recognize that taxa that are poorly known can often be assigned a\nthreat category on the basis of background information concerning the\ndeterioration of their habitat and\/or other causal factors; therefore the liberal\nuse of \u2018Data Deficient\u2019 is discouraged.\u201d Discouraging the use of the\nData Deficient category is, regrettably, encouraging the use of misinformation.\nThis can be a problem for species conservation as described by Dr. Mark D. Scherz\nand team in the journal Plos\nOne<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Example on Torrent Frogs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Scherz is a herpetologist who specializes in the\ntaxonomy of frogs in Madagascar. Taxonomy is the naming and categorizing of\nspecies. He became obsessed with Madagascar and visited for the first time when\nhe was 14 years old. His recent article digs into the naming and classification\nof torrent frogs. Torrent frogs are frogs that live around waterfalls or other\nfast flowing areas. These frogs have historically been listed as only two\nspecies, named Mantidactylus lugubris<\/em> and Mantidactylus<\/em> cowanii<\/em>.\nDr. Scherz and his team collected specimens from these species, sequenced their\nDNA and assessed this new data. After assessing the DNA sequence data and\nanatomy of the frogs, Dr. Scherz and his team have described two \u201cnew\u201d species of\ntorrent frogs, named Mantidactylus atsimo<\/em> and Mantidactylus\npetakorona<\/em>, that have been lumped into the already named species. Lumping\nthese 4 species into only 2 names misconstrued information on the status of the\nfrogs. Mantidactylus lugubris <\/em>was\nconsidered Least Concern and was thought to live all over eastern Madagascar.\nHowever, once the new species were assessed separately, it was found that M. lugubris <\/em>is only found in the central\neast of Madagascar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A torrent frog, Mantidactylus cowanii, in the field. Photo from Plos One<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A torrent frog, Mantidactylus\ncowanii,<\/em> in the field. Photo\nfrom Plos\nOne<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bigger Implications<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea that the IUCN is not as accurate as it seems has\nhuge implications for conservation. For one, taxonomy is crucial for\nspecies-specific conservation. The Red List takes years to update species and\nadd new ones. This timeline can slow the process of saving these species.\nAdditionally, the IUCN has a direct influence in the United Nations. This means\nthey have a large amount of control over where the money is going and\ntherefore, which species are going to be conserved. The IUCN\u2019s system needs to be\nupdated by creating more inclusive guidelines and having faster turnaround\ntimes, but they are still the best organization out there for categorizing\nspecies by their level of conservation need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Can the IUCN Do?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked if the IUCN has updated these frogs yet, Dr. Scherz\nexplained, \u201cthere has not been an update yet, every 4 years all frogs are\nassessed region by region. This system is lacking because no one feels\nresponsible to update animals immediately.\u201d Dr. Scherz expressed his desire for\nthe Red List guidelines to be reassessed. There is no doubt that it is\ndifficult for one organization to create guidelines to assess all species. The\ncurrent guidelines seem to be oriented towards large mammals and birds. For\nexample, Criterion B suggests that populations with larger geographic\ndistributions are at a lower risk of collapse. However, a small geographic\ndistribution for a large mammal may be a huge distribution for a small frog.\nDr. Scherz suggested, \u201cthey could correct the area for body size.\u201d For example,\na species can currently be listed as Vulnerable if their distribution is under\n20,000 km2<\/sup>. Such thresholds could be smaller for smaller animals. Scherz\nalso suggested creating a specific set of criteria for amphibians. The most\nrecent edition of the IUCN guidelines for categories and criteria came out in\n2012. It might be time for an update. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Geena Zick When you hear a species described as Endangered, do you immediately believe it? What about if you heard a species was common and of Least Concern? How do you know species are categorized correctly? For example, tigers … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6012,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[643422],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-herpetology-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6012"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":295,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291\/revisions\/295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/bmosher1-fieldherp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}