E-mail A Friend Tell a friend about the information found on this page by sending them an e-mail.   Your Name: Your E-mail:   Type an e-mail address, then click add: Add a Personal Message: (Optional)

June 2010 issue	In this issue Table of Contents Feature: Biodiversity The Inside Story Editor’s Notebook Reverberations À la carte Mosaic Book Reviews

Overheated hot spots
The pygmy hog lives in a great neighbourhood. So why is it nearing extinction?
By Steven Fick and Chloé Melançon Beauséjour

Click map to enlarge

Biodiversity on a planetary scale plays out in a predictable manner. The diversity of species generally increases nearer the equator, likely due to greater exposure to solar energy. While there are exceptions, this pattern clearly appears on a global map of mammal species, shown at top right.

Unfortunately, those same biodiversity hot spots are heating up for more ominous reasons. As can be seen on the map at bottom right, some of the richest natural regions on Earth are also among the most threatened.

The evidence comes from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the world’s largest global environmental network. IUCN produces a scientifically based inventory of biological diversity, called the Red List of Threatened Species, that evaluates the risk of extinction for thousands of species.

The prospects for mammals are not promising. Of all known mammals, 21 percent appear on the Red List as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered.

One of those, at 25 centimetres tall, is the aptly named pygmy hog, the world’s smallest wild pig. Endemic to the Himalayan foothills, the pygmy hog is found nowhere else in the wild. You would think it would benefit from its prime location: like many regions in the tropics, the Himalayas support a rich diversity of species.

Not so. Despite reintroduction efforts and conservation programs, the pygmy hog is on the brink of extinction. With fewer than 250 mature individuals confined to India’s Manas National Park, the species is on the Red List as “critically endangered.”

Far from tropical hot spots such as the Himalayas, Canada has relatively lower biodiversity and fewer species under threat. But that means losing a species would leave a gaping ecological hole. Says McGill University’s Andrew Gonzalez, a Canada Research Chair in Biodiversity, “If you have two species and take one away, you can have a huge impact on the ecosystem.”

top