[Press release] Double jeopardy for ecologically rare birds and terrestrial mammals

Common assumptions notwithstanding, rare species can play unique and essential ecological roles. After studying two databases that together cover all known terrestrial mammals and birds worldwide, scientists from the CNRS, the Foundation for Biodiversity Research (FRB), Université Grenoble Alpes, and the University of Montpellier have demonstrated that, though these species are found on all continents, they are more threatened by human pressures than ecologically common species and will also be more impacted by future climate change.

Thus they are in double jeopardy. The researchers’ findings, published in Nature Communications on October 8th 2020, show that conservation programmes must account for the ecological rarity of species.

Read the full press release