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How Threatened Is Scincella Huanrenensis? an Update on Threats and Trends

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How Threatened Is Scincella Huanrenensis? an Update on Threats and Trends Article How Threatened Is Scincella huanrenensis? An Update on Threats and Trends Yucheol Shin 1,2,†, Kevin R. Messenger 3,† , Kyo Soung Koo 4, Sang Cheol Lee 5, Mian Hou 6 and Amaël Borzée 1,* 1 Laboratory of Animal Behaviour and Conservation, College of Biology and the Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, 159 Longpan Rd, Nanjing 210037, China; [email protected] 2 Department of Biological Sciences, College of Natural Science, Kangwon National University, Chuncheon 24341, Korea 3 Herpetology and Applied Conservation Lab, College of Biology and the Environment, Nanjing Forestry University, 159 Longpan Rd, Nanjing 210037, China; [email protected] 4 Research Institute of EcoScience, Ewha Womans University, Seoul 03760, Korea; fl[email protected] 5 Bioresource and Environmental Center, Incheon National University, Incheon 22012, Korea; [email protected] 6 College of Continuing (Online) Education, Sichuan Normal University, Chengdu 610068, China; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] † The authors contributed equally. Abstract: It is important to understand the dynamics of population size to accurately assess threats and implement conservation activities when required. However, inaccurate estimates are harming both the threat estimation process, and the resulting conservation actions. Here, we address the extinction threats to Scincella huanrenensis, a species described in the People’s Republic of China, but also occurring on the Korean peninsula. Estimating the threats to the species is not an easy task due Citation: Shin, Y.; Messenger, K.R.; to its unknown population status in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Here we analysed Koo, K.S.; Lee, S.C.; Hou, M.; Borzée, the literature to acquire the known presence point for the species, along with datapoints originating A. How Threatened Is Scincella from opportunistic field surveys, and employed habitat suitability models to estimate the range of huanrenensis? An Update on Threats and Trends. Conservation 2021, 1, the species. We then followed the categories and criteria of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 58–72. https://doi.org/10.3390/ to assess the extinction risk of the species. We found the species not to be fitting the threatened conservation1010005 category at the global scale based on the range size, the only category for which enough data was available. We recommend the status of the species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species to be Academic Editor: Antoni Margalida updated as it is now listed as critically endangered (CR), a listing fitting a national assessment for the People’s Republic (PR) of China. While this species is possibly less threatened than currently listed, Received: 9 March 2021 this is not a genuine improvement, and specific conservation aspects should not be neglected due to Accepted: 22 March 2021 its specialisation to medium to high elevation habitat. Published: 25 March 2021 Keywords: Threat; skink; recommendation; IUCN Red List; Korean Peninsula; China Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. 1. Introduction Determining the threat to a species is of principal importance to establish correspond- ing conservation plans and prevent the species from going extinct [1]. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species is the principal Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. global agency taking care of updating such statuses, and the only organisation that has Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. a general reach [2,3]. These lists are regularly updated when resources are available [4], This article is an open access article and conservation resources are generally dependent on these lists, with good practices distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons having resulted in positive conservation results [5]. For instance, the adequate assessment Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// of the Oaxaca treefrog (Sarcohyla celata) has resulted in conservation activities from research creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ and local communities, and the species has consequently been moved from Critically 4.0/). Endangered (CR) to Near Threatened (NT) [6,7]. Conservation 2021, 1, 58–72. https://doi.org/10.3390/conservation1010005 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/conservation Conservation 2021, 2, FOR PEER REVIEW 2 Conservation 2021, 1 59 In opposition, inadequate assessment can result in inaccurate listing in the IUCN Red List Inof opposition,Threatened inadequateSpecies, resulting assessment in the can diversion result in inaccurateof already listinglimited in resources the IUCN away Red Listfrom of the Threatened most needing Species, taxa. resulting Similarly, in thethreat diversions to a species of already or a limitedsub-population resources may away be fromoverlooked, the most resulting needing in taxa. increased Similarly, risk to threats the species. to a species Another or negative a sub-population outcome from may bein- overlooked,adequate assessment resulting is in the increased resulting risk loss to in the public species. trust from Another mistakes, negative leading outcome to a deval- from inadequateuation of the assessment work conducted is the by resulting the IUCN loss Re ind publicList of trustThreatened from mistakes, Species since leading its estab- to a devaluationlishment [8,9]. of It the is workhowever conducted important by to the co IUCNnsider Redthe difference List of Threatened between the Species absence since of its establishment [8,9]. It is however important to consider the difference between the data, where threats in a region can be overlooked because the species is not known to be absence of data, where threats in a region can be overlooked because the species is not occurring, and the omission of existing data. Here we address the case of the Huanren known to be occurring, and the omission of existing data. Here we address the case of the ground skink, Scincella huanrenensis, a species present in the north-eastern part of the Peo- Huanren ground skink, Scincella huanrenensis, a species present in the north-eastern part ple’s Republic of China (hereafter PR China) and across the Korean peninsula. The species of the People’s Republic of China (hereafter PR China) and across the Korean peninsula. has been assessed as Critically Endangered (CR) by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Spe- The species has been assessed as Critically Endangered (CR) by the IUCN Red List of cies [10] based on a subset of its range, and Near Threatened (NT) in the Republic of Korea Threatened Species [10] based on a subset of its range, and Near Threatened (NT) in the (hereafter R Korea; [11]). Republic of Korea (hereafter R Korea; [11]). As the species ranges through the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (hereafter As the species ranges through the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (hereafter DPR Korea), an area where collecting data is comparatively difficult, we modelled the DPR Korea), an area where collecting data is comparatively difficult, we modelled the distributiondistribution ofof the the species, species, and and established establish aed proxy a proxy of the of extentthe extent of occurrence of occurrence (EOO) (EOO) based onbased the on model the model results. results. We then We followed then followed the categories the categories and criteria and criteria of the IUCN of the Red IUCN List Red of ThreatenedList of Threatened Species, Species, and recommended and recommended an update an update in the listing in the oflisting the species of the species based on based the categoryon the category and criteria and criteria we were we able were to applyable to [ 12apply]. [12]. 2.2. MaterialsMaterials andand MethodsMethods 2.1.2.1. SpeciesSpecies IntroductionIntroduction ScincellaScincella huanrenensishuanrenensis ZhaoZhao andand HuangHuang 19821982 waswas describeddescribed basedbased onon anan adultadult malemale (holotype(holotype DMNHDMNH 810045),810045), anan adultadult femalefemale (paratype(paratype DMNHDMNH 810025)810025) andand 6464 paratypesparatypes fromfrom HuanrenHuanren County,County, Liaoning Liaoning Province, Province, PR PR China China and and deposited deposited in in thethe DalianDalian MuseumMuseum ofof NaturalNatural HistoryHistory andand ChengduChengdu InstituteInstitute ofof BiologyBiology (Figure(Figure1 ;[1; [13]).13]). TheThe speciesspecies hashas beenbeen recordedrecorded at at mid-elevation mid-elevation on on the the Korean Korean peninsula peninsula and theand Liaoning the Liaoning province province in China in [14China,15]. In[14,15]. these In regions, these regions, the species the species inhabits inhabits valleys, valleys, rocky outcrops, rocky outcrops, small agricultural small agricultural fields adjacentfields adjacent to forests, to forests, mountain mountain trails, and trails, mid-elevation and mid-elevation basins, where basins, it generally where it uses generally rocks, fallenuses rocks, logs and fallen the logs leaf and litter the as leaf a principal litter as a habitat principal [16 ,habitat17]. Scincella [16,17]. huanrenensis Scincella huanrenensisis similar tois S.similar tsinlingensis to S. tsinlingensisand S. vandenburghi and S. vandenburghibut differs inbut scalation differs fromin scalation both species from both [13,18 species]. The species[13,18]. isThe ovoviviparous, species is ovoviviparous, giving birth giving to two birth to five to juveniles two to five in Chinajuveniles [19 ],in four China to five[19],
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