Should we be trying to save the dodo?

[n2doc]

A quantitative way to decide whether to keep on conserving a species.

Daniel Cressey


How do we know when a species really is as dead as a dodo?Science Photo Library


Declaring a species extinct and so not worthy of conservation money is not a trivial matter. It's a decision that scientists working for the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have to make when drawing up their Red List of Threatened Species, for example. Now, a team of Australian researchers are trying to bring a more rigorous approach to this area with the help of the dodo.

It may sound ridiculous to work out whether conservation dollars should be spent on the dodo (Raphus cucullatus), but the question illustrates a problem for biologists: determining when you should give up on a species.

Cut off conservation money too soon and you could drive a species teetering on the brink into extinction. Keep conserving an animal long after it has last been sighted and you risk wasting money that could keep another endangered animal in the game.

"Declaring extinction is a difficult decision with large risks and large uncertainties," says Tracy Rout, based at the University of Melbourne's School of Botany in Australia, who led the new study reported in Conservation Biology1. "There are many cases where species that have thought to have been extinct have been rediscovered — so-called Lazarus species."

more:

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100312/full/news.2010.120.html