Liao Jinghui Taiwan Environmental Information Association
Which group of native vertebrates on The island of Taiwan is the most critically numerous? Over the past two years, the Special Student Center of the Committee of Agriculture has taken stock of the stressed status of 617 animals in five tax groups of vertebrates in Taiwan, and 15 animal wild populations have been listed as extremely endangered. These materials were officially published in the form of a Red Book List. "The results of the Red Book List give us a clearer understanding of the status, extent, causes and trends of biological threats in Taiwan." Fang Guoyun, director of the Special Student Center, said that objective information disclosure helps the public to recognize the direction of protection.
The Red Book list of the five major taxa protozoa in Taiwan was released, covering terrestrial vertebrates. Photo by Liao Jinghui
<h1>The Red Book List connects with the world and exposes the threat of species at the taiwan scale
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The Taiwanese white dolphin, known to Taiwanese society, is a species that the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed as a global "CR" (Critical Endangered) critically endangered species. The assessment of the five major taxa is the first time that Taiwan has conducted a Taiwan Red Book List assessment of all native bird species, land reptiles, amphibians, freshwater fish and terrestrial mammals based on the categories and criteria recommended by the IUCN, with a total of 15 species listed in the CR rating, accounting for 2.4% of all species included in the assessment, respectively:
6 species of birds: blue-headed diving duck, ring-necked pheasant, forest three-toed quail, black-billed gull, spoon-billed sandpiper and black-billed crested tern;
1 species of terrestrial reptiles: golden turtle;
2 species of amphibians: Nanhu mountain pepperfish and harp frog;
4 species of freshwater fish: Japanese eel, stream crucian carp, pasteurized silver bass and Orchid snouted tiger;
There are 2 species of land mammals: Taiwan fox bat and Eurasian otter.
The golden turtle has been almost undiscovered on the main island of Taiwan for nearly 30 years, and is currently only known to be distributed on Kinmen Island, and there is a threat of hybridization. Photograph: Chen Yuanlong
The five major taxa include 316 species of birds, 89 species of terrestrial reptiles, 37 species of amphibians, 95 species of freshwater fish and 80 species of terrestrial mammals, for a total of 617 species; of which 105 species (16.9% of the assessed species) are listed as threatened species; 12 species of mammals, 52 species of birds, 5 species of reptiles, 11 species of amphibians and 25 species of freshwater fish.
Yang Zhengxiong, an assistant researcher at the Unique Biological Conservation Research Center, pointed out in the briefing that IUCN is currently the world's largest and most influential international conservation species organization. The IUCN Red List is currently the most scientifically grounded way to assess species stress in the world.
The concept of the Red Book, which defines a list of wild animals by degree of coercion, includes a series of processes of data collection, investigation and evaluation. Threatened species focus on three levels: critically endangered CR, endangered EN (Nationally Endangered), and vulnerable VU (Nationally Vulnerable).
Table: Inventory of threatened species in five major taxa. Source: TeSen Center
The data also show that the reasons for species threats can be roughly summarized as artificial hunting, such as the Japanese eel; habitat and distribution reduction, such as the Taiwan fox bat and golden turtle; release resulting in cross-fertilization of escapades, alien species and native species, and genetic contamination, such as ring-necked pheasants. Some species are the rare and narrow distribution of mature individuals in the original population, susceptible to known or unknown threats and the decrease in numbers, such as the blue-headed diving duck, the forest three-toed quail, the Nanhu mountain pepperfish and the pasteurized silver catfish.
In 2004, taiwan selected some bird species in Taiwan for evaluation in accordance with the IUCN threatened grading criteria, and subsequently published the "Atlas of Taiwan Threatened Bird Species", which is an indiscriminate reference to the Taiwan Red Book List. So far, the Red Book of Freshwater Fish and Vascular Plants has been published, and this time it is the largest and complete regional Red Book for terrestrial vertebrates, and the internationally accepted IUCN standardized method has been used to investigate the completed regional Red Book, which will help clarify the current situation of species in Taiwan.
Five aspects of the IUCN Redbook's Stress Assessment Criteria:
Populations are declining rapidly.
The distribution is limited and fragmented, and there is a decline or severe fluctuation of the population.
Small populations and continued to decline.
Very small ethnic groups.
Quantitative analysis.
<h1>The Red Book provides a scientific basis for conservation strategies and is not equivalent to a list of protected species</h1>
It is said that the Japanese eel, which is listed as a critically endangered freshwater fish, has also attracted the attention of the Japan Association in Taiwan, and went to the Electric Forestry Bureau to understand the follow-up impact. However, the scientific evidence of a 99% population decline in the past 20 years brooks no change, and although the reasons are still not discussed in scientific investigations, factors such as the mode of use, the marine environment and extreme climate changes, and the inability to break through aquaculture techniques are still known factors.
Lin Ruixing, head of the habitat ecology team of the Special Life Center, the host of the plan, stressed that the Red Book and the List of Protected Species are different concepts. The Red Book is a process of objective assessment, a scientific conclusion, which can be regarded as an important reference for the list of protected species, but it is not necessarily completely equivalent; whether it is included in the list of protected species requires further analysis of the value of the species, the potential for restoration, the cost of conservation and the socio-economic factors, and the determinants are more complex.
The list of reptile threatened species in the terrestrial domain includes the golden turtle, which has not been recorded in the wild for many years, and the existing population is mainly Kinmen. Chen Yuanlong, an assistant researcher at the Te chysomal Center, said that the endangered golden snake and Tangshui snake are all locally distributed species, especially the Tangshui snake is distributed in the northern clean water source, and habitat changes such as the disappearance of the pit pond lead to threats to its population.
In addition to the survey results accumulated by the Special Student Center in the past 20 years, the evaluation data also uses a large number of open data (Open Data) existing in various institutions or schools, as well as all the data accumulated by various groups of citizen science surveys, and after collecting and consolidating and analyzing, the evaluation work can be successfully completed.
The Red Book of Reptiles is a beneficiary of citizen participation in the survey. Lin Deen, an assistant researcher at the Texon Center, said that the investigation of reptile species is not easy, and the information accumulated by members of the Facebook community "Road Killing Society", which began to operate in 2012, has contributed to this survey.
There are 5 known species of mountain pepper fish in Taiwan, all of which are listed in the threatened level. Lin Chunfu, an assistant researcher at the Te sheng center, said that in recent years, due to the extreme climate in high-altitude areas, the snow melting time has been shortened and quickly disappeared, affecting the habitat of mountain pepper fish. Climate change may seem like a natural factor, but reducing the carbon footprint and slowing the rate of warming also contribute to nature conservation.
There are 5 species of mountain pepper fish in Taiwan, all of which are listed as threatened species. The picture shows the CR class South Lake mountain pepper fish. Image source: Forest Service
Alishan pepper fish. Image source: Chiayi Forest District Management Office
"The greater the protective effort of the people of Taiwan, not only good for the species, but also for the environment closely related to human survival!" Fang Guoyun said. The Red Book List of the Five Major Ethnic Groups is published simultaneously in Chinese and English, and the CC authorization method is applied, and all electronic files are made public on the Internet, and the status of Taiwan's species protection is known to the whole world.
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species™ is the system used by the most known countries or regions. Yang Zhengxiong, assistant researcher of the Habitat Group of the Tesenson Center, said that the IUCN was the first (1964) to implement the concept of the Red Book in assessment and publication, especially in 1994, a more rigorous and scientific method was adopted to determine the risk of species extinction and applied to all species, which was accepted by many countries and became a global benchmark, and has so far completed the evaluation and publication of more than 113 countries and 45 regions.
【Poster of the Red Book List of Five Major Groups】
List of TaiwanEse Red Book of Birds. Image source: Texon Centre
List of Red Books of Taiwan's Land Reptiles. Image source: Texon Centre
List of amphibian red books in Taiwan. Image source: Texon Centre
Red book list of freshwater fish in Taiwan. Image source: Texon Centre
List of Red Books of Mammals in Taiwan's Land Regions. Image source: Texon Centre