Special Issue "Conservation of Endangered Animals and Protection of Their Habitats"

Guest Editor
Prof. Dr. John L. Koprowski
Wildlife Conservation & Management, School of Natural Resources & the Environment (SNRE), University of Arizona, 325 Biological Sciences East, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
Website: http://www.ag.arizona.edu/research/redsquirrel/index.html
E-Mail: squirrel@ag.arizona.edu
Interests: conservation biology of terrestrial vertebrates; behavioral and population ecology; social behavior; forest management; urban wildlife; threatened and endangered species; ecology and conservation of squirrels; climate change

Dear Colleagues,

While the value of biodiversity is increasingly appreciated by society, the challenges to stem the losses in biodiversity remain extensive and the timescale short. The pressures experienced by animal populations in the face of global change due to natural and anthropogenic forces are often immense. Persistence of animal populations in the face of environmental changes that alter habitat quality due to climate change, human population pressures and development, invasive species, disease spread, and a myriad of other factors is the issue that confronts many researchers studying biodiversity. The conservation of endangered animal species exemplifies the complexity of the challenges of the future. We must deal with the biological intricacies caused by rarity in numbers in concert with the nuances of habitat conservation and restoration that are influenced by social, economic, and ecological factors. The essays in this volume will detail a diversity of approaches to the challenges with examples of success tempered by a sense of the enormity of future efforts.

Prof. Dr. John L. Koprowski
Guest Editor

Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed Open Access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is waived for well-prepared manuscripts. English correction and/or formatting fees of 250 CHF (Swiss Francs) will be charged in certain cases for those articles accepted for publication that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections. And starting from 1 January 2013, the APC will be 300 CHF.

• animal conservation
• threatened and endangered species
• conservation biology
• wildlife conservation
• wildlife management
• population viability
• habitat restoration
• red list species

Type: Article
Title: The Need to Incorporate Uncertainty into Recovery Goals for Endangered Species
Authors: Aaron Haines, Katie Brittingham, Michale S. Scott, Dale Goble, Janet Rachlow and Matt Zak
Affiliation: Department of Biology, Millersville University, Millersville, PA 17551, USA; E-Mail: Aaron.Haines@millersville.edu
Abstract: The purpose of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973 is to preserve both endangered and threatened species and their ecosystems. Since its enactment, over 1,350 species have been listed under the ESA. Over a thousand of these species have recovery plans specifically written to help in delisting or downlisting the species, over 200 of those have a population size stipulated as a benchmark for recovery. We discuss whether uncertainty associated with population estimates is commonly reported in these recovery documents as a measure of precision. We found that < 6% of all recovery plans reported uncertainty for population estimates. The failure to evaluate and quantify uncertainty associated with population estimates could lead to species being downlisted or delisted before benchmarks are achieved. In order to avoid premature changes in species status we recommend more rigorous approaches when specifying recovery criteria for endangered species.

Type: Article
Title: An Attempt at Captive Breeding in an Endangered Newt, Echinotriton andersoni, from Central Ryukyus in Japan
Authors: Masayuki Sumida ¹, Takeshi Igawa ¹, Mohammed Mafizul Islam ¹, Nozomi Shintani ¹, Ryosuke Kakehashi ¹, Hirotaka Sugawara ¹, Takuma Nishitani ¹, Atsushi Kurabayashi ¹, Shohei Oumi ², Seiki Katsuren ³, Miyuki Tado ⁴ and Tamotsu Fujii ⁴
Affiliation:
¹ Institute for Amphibian Biology, Graduate School of Science, Hiroshima University, Higashihiroshima 739-8526, Japan; E-Mail: msumida@hiroshima-u.ac.jp
² Section of Agriculture and Forestry, Amami City Government
³ Okinawa Prefectural Institute of Health and Environment
⁴ Faculty of Human Culture & Science, Hiroshima Prefectural University
Abstract: Andersoni’s crocodile newt Echinotriton andersoni is distributed in Central Ryukyus, southern part of Japan. Regrettably, over-hunting and environmental destruction over the last several decades have devastated the populations of this species. This species has therefore been listed as a class II endangered species in IUCN Red List, considered to be facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild, and protected by law in both Okinawa and Kagoshima Prefectures. In the present study we naturally bred this species and tested a farming technique in the laboratory to preserve the endangered species using several male and female pairs of E. andersoni from Okinawa and Tokunoshima Islands in the breeding containers manufactured in the state that is almost biotope. Among 341 eggs derived from 14 females, 283 (83.0%) became normal tail-bud embryos, 242 (71.0%) hatched normally, 213 (62.5%) metamorphosed normally, and 141 (41.3%) became normal 2-month-old newts. Eggs were laid on the slope near the pond in the container in the last two breeding seasons. Larvae were raised in glass Petri dishes that were maintained in a temperature-controlled incubator at 20 °C and fed tubifex. Metamorphosed newts were transferred to plastic containers in a temperature-controlled incubator at 22.5 °C and fed a diet of crickets to grow healthily. For the natural breeding of endangered species, it is possible to apply the natural mating activity for this species using the breeding container in the laboratory. The findings regarding the natural breeding and the raising of larvae and adults are useful for the breeding of endangered species and can be applied to the preservation of wild endangered species.