Module 14: Endemic species

The message
Endemic and range-limited species are unique to one place, making conserving that place especially important.

The experience
Visitors chose to become one of several plant and animal species, many of which are endemic or have a limited range. Their goal is to find the habitat that’s “just right” from several ecosystems or global destinations, including Madagascar, the Philippines, and Peru. Visitors start with some clues from their species’ profile (some basic likes and dislikes) and basic stats on the different ecosystems to select. Visitors receive additional feedback as they place their species into different habitats (“too warm,” “too wet,” “nothing to eat,” etc.). After a match is found, the game might further dramatize the effects of climate change or habitat loss—where can that species go next? In some cases, the answer is nowhere.

Surrounding this interactive are cases with specimens and taxidermy mounts from Madagascar, the Philippines, and Peru. Skeletons of one of the world’s largest bats (its wingspan stretching more than 5 feet) and one of the world’s tiniest bats (several skulls could fit on your thumbnail) hang side by side in the Philippines case, while a lemur and suckerfoot bats populate the Madagascar case. Birds with bright plumage and herbarium sheets, accompanied by full-color high-resolution plant scans, fill the Peru case.

The story
Our efforts to document endemic biodiversity struggle to keep pace with deforestation in many countries. Given their limited range, these species disappear once an ecosystem disappears.

For Steve Goodman in Madagascar and Larry Haney in the Philippines, communicating that these local species are totally unique stirs pride and, in turn, conservation action among the public. Both men have coordinated special campaigns on endemic species targeting schoolchildren.

Larry Haney has produced a biogeographic modeling system for the Philippines that predicts the number of mammal species and the number of new mammal species one can expect to find based on a site’s elevation, precipitation, temperature, and degree of isolation.

ECCo has produced several books on endemic and limited-range species, including “The Birds of Peru” and “The Plants of Peru.” Of the plants that grow nowhere else in the world but Peru, 50% did not appear in Peruvian botanical collections at the time of publication—a Peruvian scientist would have no record or image to reference native species. By making materials from the Field collection accessible, ECCo is arming local scientists with essential conservation information.