I sent this to John earlier, but you may as well all read it.
The definition of endemic differs depending on how you use it. It's often
used to describe species that are restricted to a particular country, island
or other geographical area. This is particularly useful if you happen to be
a world-birder and want to know which birds to concentrate on between
flights. Tina MacDonald's site is fantastic and it lists endems for many
countries and a whole wealth of other information at
www.camacdonald.com/birding/birding.htm . However, I notice that there does
not appear to be working link to endems for Australia at present which is
annoying.
The dictionary definition of endemic is something that is 'regularly found
in a particular region'.
[Laurie - strangely your definition is identical to the one that is in my
Oxford English Dictionary].
The ICBP (now BirdLife International) defined
Endemic Bird Areas (EBAs) in 'Putting Biodiversity on the Map' as areas
where there are two or more Restricted Range Species. In this respect,
BirdLife consider a species to be endemic if it has a total range size of
50,000km^2 or less. With country borders changing all the time and an avian
disregard for national sovereignty issues, it is easiest to use a less
arbitrary definition of endemic if you wanna be scientific.
Cheers,
Simon.
_____________________________________________
Simon Mustoe - Principle
AES Applied Ecology Solutions Pty Ltd.
59 Joan Avenue
Ferntree Gully
Melbourne
Victoria 3156
AUSTRALIA
Telephone 03 9762 2616
International Telephone +61 (0) 3 9762 2616
Mobile 0405 220830
Email
Website www.onthe.net.au/ecologysolutions
|
