Double jeopardy for ecologically rare birds and terrestrial mammals

© Jean-François Silvain (président de la Fondation pour la recherche sur la biodiversité). 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 1 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 (October 8, 2020), show that conservation programmes must account for the ecological rarity of species. These scientists are affiliated with the following research units: the Centre for Marine Biodiversity, Exploitation and Conservation (CNRS / University of Montpellier / IRD / IFREMER), the Centre d'Écologie Fonctionnelle et Évolutive (CNRS / University of Montpellier / Paul Valéry University / EPHE / IRD), the Laboratoire d'Écologie Alpine (CNRS / Université Grenoble Alpes / Université Savoie Mont Blanc), and the Centre de Synthèse et d'Analyse sur la Biodiversité (CESAB) at the FRB. This research is the product of FREE, a CESAB team dedicated to the coherent integration of biodiversity data.