What's Up in the Wild World

Are snakes slipping in Saskatchewan or birds burgeoning in Alberta? How are Canada's ferns and fish faring, and what's new with newts? The answers to these and other pressing questions about the status of 1600 species of Canadian plants and animals reside in the recently released Wild Species 2000 report.

The report responds to commitments made by the provincial, territorial and federal ministers responsible for wildlife under the 1996 Accord for the Protection of Species at Risk to identify species that may be in trouble, those for which more information is needed, and those that require a formal status assessment or additional management attention. Simply put, it tells us what there is, where it occurs, and how it is doing. It establishes for the first time a common method for examining the status of species in Canada and a baseline against which future changes in distribution and abundance can be measured.

Environment Canada's Canadian Wildlife Service co-led the joint federal-provincial/territorial working group that chose the eight groups of species to be assessed—namely, ferns, orchids, butterflies, freshwater fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Regional and national evaluations were based on information about population size, trends, distribution and threats gathered from a diverse range of sources, including government biologists, amateur naturalists, museum specialists and holders of traditional ecological knowledge. The status of each species was then ranked as extirpated/extinct, at risk, may be at risk, sensitive, secure, undetermined, not assessed, exotic or accidental.

The 50-page report provides an overview of each group's characteristics (e.g., number of species and distribution in Canada), and summaries of its status ranks. Species-specific information is featured on the CD-ROM dataset that accompanies the report, as well as on the Web at www.wildspecies.ca.

Among the many interesting findings contained in the report is the fact that approximately 65 per cent of the species covered are considered secure at all geographic scales. At the national level, the majority of ferns, orchids, birds and mammals are deemed secure, and have a relatively low percentage of species at risk. Although 53 per cent of freshwater fish are also ranked secure, 17 per cent are ranked undetermined—signaling the need for further study. A significant gap in information also exists for butterflies, whose regional average is 45 per cent secure and 37 per cent not assessed. Habitat loss is a major factor in the ranking of 22 per cent of amphibians as either at risk or may be at risk. Nearly 25 per cent of all reptiles have also been ranked as at risk. On a regional scale, Nova Scotia and Manitoba contain the highest proportion of secure species, and British Columbia and the Yukon the lowest.

Despite the magnitude of this report, it is an initial effort and still represents only a fraction of the more than 70 000 described species of plants and animals that are currently found in Canada. Additional species and groups will be covered in Wild Species 2005 and subsequent reports, and new data will be incorporated into the 2005 report to fill in gaps and determine trends for species that have already been assessed.

  Home |  Air |  Atmospheric Science |  Climate Change |  Environmental Action |  Habitat |  Pollution |  Species at Risk |  Technology |  Water |  Weather |  Wildlife