Recent increases in human disturbance pose significant threats to migratory species using collective movement strategies. Key threats to migrants may differ depending on behavioural traits (e.g. collective navigation), taxonomy and the environmental system (i.e. freshwater, marine or terrestrial) associated with migration. We quantitatively assess how collective navigation, taxonomic membership...

Nature conservation work has come a long way in just over a century. In the 19th century, species were grouped into useful and harmful ones. Protection, which was beginning to be enshrined in laws and international treaties, was only extended to the useful species. Nuisances such as lions and bears were unflinchingly earmarked for destruction. Since the foundation of the International Union for...

Threats faced by mammalian species can be grouped into one of a handful of categories, such as habitat loss, unsustainable hunting and persecution. Insofar as they face common threats, diverse species may benefit from the same conservation intervention, thereby offering efficiencies in conservation action. We explore this proposition for primates and felids by examining coarse scale overlaps in...

A clear understanding of population structure is essential for assessing conservation status and implementing management strategies. A small, non-migratory population of humpback whales in the Arabian Sea is classified as "Endangered" on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, an assessment constrained by a lack of data, including limited understanding of its relationship to other populations....

Detailed large-scale information on mammal distribution has often been lacking, hindering conservation efforts. We used the information from the 2009 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as a baseline for developing habitat suitability models for 5027 out of 5330 known terrestrial mammal species, based on their habitat relationships. We focused on the following environmental variables: land cove...

Oxalis simplicifolia Lorence & W. L. Wagner sp. nov., a new species from the Marquesas Islands (Ua Huka) is described and illustrated. It differs from the other Marquesas species, Oxalis gagneorum, in having simple, unifoliolate glabrous leaves, minutely glandular-puberulent calyx lobes, shorter corolla lobes, erect capsules, and smaller seeds. As its habitat is under serious threat from human ...

A new species of Spiradiclis (Rubiaceae) was found during our field trip to Guangxi, China, and is described here as Spiradiclislonganensis R. J. Wang. This species is readily distinguishable from other prostrate and decumbent species of the genus described previously by dense pubescence all over the plant, 5-20 small flowers per cymose, linear calyx lobes, and tubular corolla. The conservation...

A revision of Gonolobus s.s. (Apocynaceae: Asclepiadoideae: Gonolobinae) in the West Indies is provided based on recent evidence of support for the monophyly of the genus from molecular and morphological data. Ten species are recognized (eight endemic to a single island each). Keys, descriptions, and illustrations are provided for all ten species. The conservation status of each species is prov...

Dianthus multiflorus from Gazipaşa (Antalya), south Anatolia (Turkey), is described as a new annual species with verrucose calyx. The morphological differences from the species within the same group with Dianthus multiflorus, which are Dianthus aydogdui, Dianthus cyri and Dianthus tripunctatus, are discussed. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) threat category and observat...

We assessed the prevalence of alien species as a driver of recent extinctions in five major taxa (plants, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals), using data from the IUCN Red List. Our results show that alien species are the second most common threat associated with species that have gone completely extinct from these taxa since AD 1500. Aliens are the most common threat associated with extin...