Theducn AMPHIBIA” REPTILIA RED DATA BOOK PART 1
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1 I INTERNATIONAL UNION FOR CONSERVATION OF NATURE AND I?- -,‘I’ NATURAL RESOURCES t 9s2 Y- I , / THEdUCN AMPHIBIA” REPTILIA RED DATA BOOK PART 1 Testudines Crocodylia Rhynchocephalia Compiled by BRIAN GROOMBRIDGE assisted by Lissie Wright of the IUCN CONSERVATION MONITORING CENTRE with the help and advice of the Species Survival Commission of IUCN and other experts throughout the world Published by IUCN, Gland, Switzerland, 1982 (IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre, 219(c) Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 ODL, U.K.) Prepared with the financial assistance of THE WORLD WILDLIFE FUND and THE UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME A contribution to the Global Environment Monitoring System IUCN IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is a network of governments, nongovern- mental organizations (NGOs), scientists and other conservation PREAMBLE experts, joined together to promote the protection and sustain- able use of liv/ng resources. IUCN has always had as one of its principal functions the gathering of data on species and habitats under threat, so that action can be taken. It Founded in 1948, IUCN has more than 450 member governments has, over the years, initiated and solicited information throughout the \ and NGOs in over 100 countries. Its six Commissions consist of world. For species, this has been mainly through the Specialist Groups of more than 700 experts on threatened species, protected areas, the Species Survival Commission (SSC) or particular contracted indidivuals. ecology, environmental planning, environmental policy, law and administration, and environmental education. It was recognized some while ago that to handle and put to best advantage the amount of data being received, together with the requirement IUCN to present information in many different ways and to insure that action programmes be developed rapidly, there was a need for a full-time l monitors the status of ecosystems and species throughout Monitoring Centre to be set up. This has now been possible with the moral the world: and financial support of the United Nations Environment Programme l plans conservation action, both at the strategic level through (UNEP) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), for which I am most grateful. the World Conservation Strategy and the programme level through its programme of conservation for sustainable It has been my pleasure and privilege to help create this Centre and development; watch it quickly grow. It is now coming to the production stage, having had l promotes such action by governments, intergovernmental to collate sufficiently all the previous scattered information. This, as all bodies and nongovernmental organizations; researchers know, is a most frustrating task; working hard but having little l provides assistance and advice necessary for the achieve- to show for one’s efforts. We now see the beginnings of not just a whole new ment of such action. generation of the Red Data Books, but a computer-held data base with much wider information available. In time this will allow many different outputs for many different purposes as well as updated information on single or groups of sheets; either geographic or taxonomically arranged as needed. @ International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources The present work is the result of this activity, involving the sustained attention of the compiler, support from the Centre’s administrative staff ISBN No. 2-66032-601-X and guidance from the Species Survival Commission’s Specialist Group members and consultants. As will be evident from the Introduction, we rely heavily on the assistance and support of our own expert associates to ensure that our data is of the highest quality. May I count on your help? I would like to express my thanks and congratulations to all those who have contributed towards this work; in particular Brian Groombridge who has compiled it, Lissie Wright who assisted him, Carol Hovenden and Suzanne Vernon who were responsible for handling the text storage and processing equipment, and Tony Mence, the Centre’s manager. G.LI. Lucas Chairman Species Survival Commission July 1982 Cover drawing of a Nile Crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) by Brian Groombridge Printed by Unwin Brothers Limited, -rhs Cra-hrm PWSS Old W&no. Surrey, U.K. CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION i Background i Threats and Species iv Methods vii Recommendations Vlll Taxonomic References ix References cited ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xi . INVENTORY REPORT FORM XIII RED DATA BOOK CATEGORIES xv LIST OF THREATENED TESTUDINES, CROCODYLIA RHY NCHOCEPHALIA: 1. IN SYSTEMATIC ORDER xvii 2. ARRANGED BY RED DATA BOOK CATEGORY xxi 3. ARRANGED BY COUNTRY AND . ZOOGEOGRAPHICAL REGION xx111 TAXA PREVIOUSLY INCLUDED IN AMPHIBIA-REPTILIA RED DATA BOOK BUT EXCLUDED FROM THE PRESENT REVISION Xl DATA SHEETS 1 INDEX 419 JNTRODJJCTJON Background This volume, the first part of a new fully-revised and expanded edition of the JIJCN Amphibia-Reptilia Red Data Book, comprises accounts of the species (or subspecies) of the reptile orders Testudines, Crocodylia and Rhynchocephalia, whose continued survival is known or strongly suspected to be actively threatened or otherwise at risk. The order Testudines (‘chelonians’) includes freshwater turtles, sea turtles and land tortoises; the Crocodylia (‘crocodilians’) includes alligators, caimans, true crocodiles and the Gharial; the only living representative of the Rhynchocephalia is the lizard-like Tuatara (a diversity of fossil rhynchocephalians is known, dating back to around 200 million years before present). A partly-revised third edition of the Amphibia-Reptilia Red Data Book, compiled (as were earlier editions) by Rene Honegger of Ziirich Zoo, was published in late 1979. The majority of the data sheets were un-revised since the second (1975) edition. This book is the first published product incorporating information drawn from the expanding data base on threatened amphibians and reptiles being established at the Conservation Monitoring Centre (CMC, see below). The CMC word-processing facility and the appointment of a full-time compiler for this Red Data Book (RDB) has allowed a significant increase in the effort that can be devoted to gathering and updating information on each included taxon. It has been the intention to exploit this in providing a fairly full, but still concise, profile of relevant aspects of the biology of each taxon treated. In common with the other new RDBs the format and subheadings have been modified to improve the organization of the data. At the same time an attempt has been made to be as comprehensive as possible within each subheading. It is hoped that the new material presented under the ‘Habitat and Ecology’ section in particular will give greater meaning to the primary data on survival status, threats and conservation measures. Where an adequate volume of data is available, each taxon account has been treated in some respects as a scientific paper in its own right; all major facts, interpretations and opinions are referenced and a ‘Summary’ provides an overview of the material presented. Contact with herpetological colleagues and other zoologists demonstrates that awareness of IUCN, the Amphibia-Reptilia Red Data Book, and concepts relating to threatened species, is more restricted than might be wished. Thus, one major aim of the expanded treatment of taxa in this volume of the Amphibia-Reptilia RDB is to reach and influence readers outside the conservationist and environmentalist world who may be attracted initially by the basic zoological data. Such data are difficult to find for many of the species, or not available from a single source. This approach does, however, require that publication of material on threatened amphibians and reptiles is staggered, so that information remains adequately up-to-date at the time of publication. A taxonomic approach is followed by most workers who have provided data, and by the JJJCN/SSC Specialist Groups themselves, and this has been adopted in partitioning the Amphibia-Reptilia RDB into manageable sections. It is recognized that a geographical breakdown might be more appropriate for some users, but information on a regional basis will be accessible through the CMC computer when fully operational, and (as in previous RDBs) there is a geographical index. It compiles and maintains up-to-date lists of the world’s protected was decided to begin the revision with chelonians, crocodilians and the Tuatara areas. Some of this information is published in the IJnited because of the volume of data available, and to some extent because of the wider Nations List of National Parks and Equivalent Reserves and The interest in these species. Taxon accounts for these groups are here published as World Directory of National Parks and other Protected Areas. Part 1 of the new Amphibia-Reptilia RDB. Further parts, dealing with snakes and PADU will assess the coverage by protected areas of each lizards, and with amphibians, will follow. Although the volume of data available biogeographical province on land as identified by Udvardy, and on most of these species is relatively small, the number of species to be treated is biophysical province at sea. CNPPA will then be able to identify very large and relevant information is difficult to obtain. Thus it is not possible gaps in the world-wide system of reserves and thus focus its at this time to state when these further volumes will appear. attention on the establishment of protected areas where they are most required. Initially PADU plans to produce volumes on each The following outline of the aims and establishment of the Conservation of the eight biogeographical realms. Monitoring Centre is taken from the recently-published Part 1 of the Mammal All sections of the Centre have word-processing facilities which RDB (3). have greatly increased the efficiency of data compilation, and a “The World Conservation Strategy (I), published in 1980, computer has been installed at Kew to store and process the data succinctly articulated the rationale for species conservation and base that is emerging.