Oryx Vol 35 No 2 April 2001

Short Communication

Identi®ng priority ecoregions for rodent conservation

at the genus level
Giovanni Amori and Spartaco Gippoliti

Abstract Rodents account for 40 per cent of living high number of genera) `threat-spots' for rodent conser-
mammal species. Nevertheless, despite an increased vation. A few regions, mainly drylands, are singled out
interest in biodiversity conservation and their high as important areas for rodent conservation but are not
species richness, Rodentia are often neglected by con- generally recognized in global biodiversity assessments.
servationists. We attempt for the ®rst time a world-wide These are the remaining forests of Togo, extreme
evaluation of rodent conservation priorities at the genus `western Sahel', the Turanian and Mongolian±Manchu-
level. Given the low popularity of the order, we rian steppes and the desert of the Horn of Africa.
considered it desirable to discuss identi®ed priorities Resources for conservation must be allocated ®rst to
within the framework of established biodiversity prior- recognized threat spots and to those restricted-range
ity areas of the world. Two families and 62 genera are genera which may depend on species-speci®c strategies
recognized as threatened. Our analyses highlight the for their survival.
Philippines, New Guinea, Sulawesi, the Caribbean,
China temperate forests and the Atlantic Forest of Keywords Biodiversity, conservation priorities,
south-eastern Brazil as the most important (for their rodents, threatened genera, world ecoregions.

Conservation efforts for rodents must be included in

Introduction
the general framework of mammalian diversity conser-
With 26±32 recognized extant families and more than vation, focusing on a biodiversity/area approach. It is
2050 recognized species (Hartenberger, 1985; Wilson & extremely urgent to identify endangered taxonomic
Reeder, 1993; Nowak, 1999), Rodentia is the richest groups, endemism and species-rich areas to maintain
order among mammals. Rodents occur naturally on current rodent diversity. Areas of concern for rodents
every continent (except Antarctica and some major may overlap with previously identi®ed ÔhotspotsÕ or
islands such as New Caledonia and New Zealand, restricted-range species areas (Myers, 1988, 1990; Stat-
which have no native species) and in every habitat, ters®eld et al., 1998), megadiversity countries (e.g. Mit-
and show a considerable diversity in morphology, termeier, 1988), major tropical wilderness areas
behaviour, habitat utilization and life history strategy. (Mittermeier et al., 1998) or, instead, represent speci®c
Because of this widespread presence, rodents are the priorities for the IUCN/SSC Rodent Specialist Group.
most commonly used mammals in ecological studies, It has been proposed that higher taxon richness be
and can serve as exceptionally good indicator species used as a surrogate of species richness in rapid
to detect changes in habitat quality resulting from biodiversity surveys (Williams & Gaston, 1994). Given
natural or human-induced changes (Yensen & Hafner, the great number (probably still underestimated) of
1998). Although 330 species of rodents are considered existing rodent species, and the lack of enthusiasm and
threatened (IUCN, 1996) and many species are known to resource allocation for rodent conservation, strategies
play a unique role in sustaining ecosystems and current must be primarily directed to prevent the complete
biodiversity (Maser & Maser, 1988; Yensen et al., 1992; extinction of whole phylogenetic lineages at the genus,
Miller et al., 1994; Forget, 1997), conservation efforts for subfamily and family level, an event already recorded,
threatened rodents seem a low priority at the moment for example, in the case of the Heptaxodontidae in the
(Amori & Gippoliti, 2000). West Indies (Nowak, 1999). In this work, we propose
determining conservation priorities for the order Rod-
entia at the genus level (see Reinthal, 1993). Efforts
G. Amori (corresponding author) and S. Gippoliti Evolutionary toward the identi®cation of priorities at this taxonomic
Genetics Centre, CNR, Via dei Sardi 50-00185, Rome, Italy. E-mail: level appear more realistic, and provide a more stable
giovanni.amori@uniroma1.it
basis (albeit not de®nitive, see Carleton & Goodman,
Revised manuscript accepted for publication 25 October 2000

158
Ó 2001 FFI, Oryx, 35(2), 158±165
 Rodent conservation priorities 159

Table 1 Threatened rodent genera and their geographical range. Monotypic families are in bold.

Genera Zoogeographic region Range Number of species Family

Biswamoyopterus Oriental India (Tirap district Assam) 1 Sciuridae

Eupetaurus Oriental India, Pakistan (West Himalaya) 1 Sciuridae
Myosciurus Afrotropical Cameroon, Bioko Island, Gabon, Nigeria 1 Sciuridae
Hyosciurus Oriental Sulawesi 2 Sciuridae
Trogopterus Oriental Central-eastern China 1 Sciuridae
Zygogeomys Nearctic North-central Michoacan, Mexico 1 Geomyidae
Cardiocranius Palearctic Mongolia, East Kazakhstan, China 1 Dipodidae
Eozapus Palearctic/Oriental Yunnan, West Sichuan, Quinghai & 1 Dipodidae
South Gansu (China)
Euchoreutes Palearctic China, Mongolia 1 Dipodidae
Abrawayaomys Neotropical Brazil 1 Muridae
Abditomys Oriental Luzon (Philippines) 1a Muridae
Ammodillus Afrotropical South-west Ethiopia, Somalia 1 Muridae
Anonymomys Oriental Mindoro (Philippines) 1 Muridae
Anotomys Neotropical Ecuador 1 Muridae
Archboldomys Oriental Luzon (Philippines) 2 Muridae
Crateromys Oriental Luzon, Mindoro, Dinagat, Panay 4 Muridae
(Philippines)
Eropeplus Oriental Central Sulawesi 1 Muridae
Gymnuromys Afrotropical East Madagascar 1 Muridae
Hypogeomys Afrotropical West Madagascar 1 Muridae
Komodomys Oriental Lesser Sunda Islands 1 Muridae
Kunsia Neotropical North-east Argentina, West-eastern Central 2 Muridae
Brazil, North-east Bolivia
Lamottemys Afrotropical Mt. Oko, West Cameroon 1 Muridae
Leimacomys Afrotropical Central Togo 1 Muridae
Leporillus Australian South Australia, Franklin Island 1 Muridae
Limnomys Oriental Mindanao (Philippines) 1a Muridae
Macruromys Australian New Guinea 1 Muridae
Mayermys Australian North-east New Guinea 1 Muridae
Megadendromus Afrotropical East Ethiopia 1 Muridae
Melasmothrix Oriental Sulawesi 1 Muridae
Microhydromys Australian New Guinea 2a Muridae
Muriculus Afrotropical Ethiopia 1 Muridae
Mystromys Afrotropical South Africa, Lesotho 1 Muridae
Nesoryzomys Neotropical Galapagos (Ecuador) 2a Muridae
Neohydromys Australian Central-eastern New Guinea 1 Muridae
Nilopegamys Afrotropical Ethiopia 1a Muridae
Palawanomys Oriental Palawan (Philippines) 1 Muridae
Papagomys Oriental Flores Island (Indonesia) 3 Muridae
Paulamys Oriental Flores Island (Indonesia) 1a Muridae
Phaenomys Neotropical Rio de Janeiro, East Brazil 1 Muridae
Podomys Nearctic Florida (USA) 1 Muridae
Pseudohydromys Australian New Guinea 2 Muridae
Rhagomys Neotropical Rio de Janeiro, East Brazil 1 Muridae
Solomys Australian Bouganinville Island, Santa Ysabel 4 Muridae
Island (Solomons)
Tateomys Oriental Sulawesi 2 Muridae
Tokudaia Oriental Okinawa, Amami, Tokuno-shima 3 Muridae
Islands (Japan)
Tryphomys Oriental North Luzon (Philippines) 1 Muridae
Vernaya Oriental Central-south China, Myanmar 1 Muridae
Xeromys Australian South-eastern Qeensland, coastal Northern 1 Muridae
Territory, Melville Islands
Pedetes Afrotropical East and South Africa 1 Pedetidae
Felovia Afrotropical Senegal, Mali, Mauritania 1 Ctenodactyilidae
Chaetocaudab Oriental China 1 Gliridae
Glirulus Palearctic Honshu, Shikoku E Kyushu Islands (Japan) 1 Gliridae
Myomimus Palearctic Bulgaria, West Turkey, Iran, Turkmenistan, 3 Gliridae
Uzbekistan

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160 G. Amori and S. Gippoliti

Table 1 (Continued).

Genera Zoogeographic region Range Number of species Family

Selevinia Palearctic South-eastern East Kazakhstan 1 Gliridae

Chinchilla Neotropical North-west Argentina, Peru, Bolivia, 2 Chinchillidae
North Chile
Dinomys Neotropical Colombia, West Bolivia, Brazil 1 Dinomyidae
Tympanoctomys Neotropical Mendoza Province (Argentina) 1 Octodontidae
Chaetomys Neotropical South-east Brazil 1 Echimyidae
Geocapromys Neotropical Jamaica, Bahamas 2 Capromyidae
Isolobodon Neotropical Hispaniola 1 Capromyidae
Mesocapromys Neotropical Cuba 4 Capromyidae
Plagiodontia Neotropical Hispaniola 1 Capromyidae
a
Missing genera from the IUCN Red List (1996) but here considered threatened.
b
Tentatively, we accept Chaetocauda (following Corbet & Hill, 1992; Storch, 1995) as a full genus for the recently described Sichuan dormouse.

1996, 1998) for conservation planning than presently the very few specimens known and/or very restricted
allowed by continually updated species lists (e.g. ranges.
Groves & Flannery, 1994; Rickart et al., 1998; da Silva, We mainly followed Olson & Dinerstein (1997) for the
1998). At this level, it is also possible to identify, and identi®cation and nomenclature of major world ecore-
thus emphasize the conservation importance, of an- gions. We list major environmental threats (as deduced
cient, species-poor lineages that contribute heavily to by Olson & Dinerstein, 1997 and Statters®eld et al., 1998)
the diversity of the order at the expense of more for each ecoregion with particular attention to those
recent, speciose clades (Vane-Wright et al., 1991; Kra- considered of importance to rodents (G. Amori and
jewski, 1994). In fact, the extinction of a member of the S. Gippoliti, in preparation).
genus Rattus cannot be considered of equal importance
to the loss of the only species of the family Hydroch-
Results and discussion
aeridae. This simple phylogenetic criterion is not
entirely satisfactory because it undervalues the role The present assessment provides a ®rst global frame-
of rodents in natural ecosystems (Power et al., 1996), work to direct scarce resources towards the conservation
but paucity of ecological studies make objective of phylogenetically distinctive and apparently threat-
assessment on a global scale impossible at the present ened members of the order Rodentia.
time. It is auspicious, however, that the preservation of In the present analysis 62 genera are recognized as
major terrestrial biomes by existing protected area threatened and 45 as potentially threatened (Tables 1
systems serves to guarantee protection for most rodent and 2). Also, two monotypic families, Pedetidae and
species. Dinomyidae, appear to be threatened. The Oriental
region has the highest number of threatened and
potentially threatened genera (21 and 13, respectively,
Methods
see Table 3). Some areas are clearly singled out as threat
The systematics followed are those reviewed in Wilson & spots for rodent conservation (see Table 4). The Philip-
Reeder (1993). We considered as threatened species those pines (excluding Palawan) have six threatened endemic
classi®ed by IUCN (1996) as Critically Endangered (CR), genera and two potentially threatened genera, ®ve of
Endangered (EN) and Vulnerable (VU); threatened gen- which occur in the Luzon faunal division. The highland
era as those having all extant species listed by IUCN and lowland forests of New Guinea have ®ve threatened
(1996) as threatened (see also Rylands et al., 1997) or, endemic genera and one potentially threatened genus.
possibly, extinct; potentially threatened genera as those Sulawesi has four threatened endemic genera. China's
having all extant species listed in the threatened (CR, EN temperate forests have four threatened genera (one
and VU), Lower Risk (Conservation Dependent and Near non-endemic) and two potentially threatened genera.
Threatened) and Data De®cient categories. The latter In the Neotropics, the most important threat spot is
subdivision has been included because we feel that the represented by the Atlantic Forest of south-eastern
endangered status of many little-known rodent taxa is Brazil, where four threatened genera and one potentially
presently undervalued. threatened genus (all endemic) are found. Four threat-
We included in the threatened genera category a few ened genera occur in the Caribbean, two of which
taxa omitted in the 1996 IUCN Red List, because of are restricted to Hispaniola. Among Afrotropical

Ó 2001 FFI, Oryx, 35(2), 158±165

 Rodent conservation priorities 161

Table 2 Potentially threatened rodent genera.

Genera Zoogeographical region Range Number of species Family

Aeretes Oriental Hebei and Sichuan (China) 1 Sciuridae

Epixerus Afrotropical West-central Africa 2 Sciuridae
Euglacomys Oriental Pakistan, India 1 Sciuridae
Syntheosciurus Neotropical Costa Rica, North Panama 1 Sciuridae
Belomys Oriental India, China, Indochina, Taiwan 1 Sciuridae
Pteromyscus Oriental South Thailand, Sumatra, Borneo 1 Sciuridae
Chionomys Palearctic South-eastern Central Europe, Middle East 3 Muridae
Dinaromys Palearctic Balkans 1 Muridae
Myopus Palearctic North Europe, North Asia 1 Muridae
Proedromys Oriental Gansu, Sichuan (China) 1 Muridae
Beamys Afrotropical East Africa 2 Muridae
Dendroprionomys Afrotropical Congo 1 Muridae
Platacanthomys Oriental India 1 Muridae
Prionomys Afrotropical Cameroon, South Central African Republic 1 Muridae
Microdillus Afrotropical Somalia 1 Muridae
Carpomys Oriental North Luzon (Philippines) 2 Muridae
Celaenomys Oriental North Luzon (Philippines) 1 Muridae
Diomys Oriental North-east India, West Nepal 1 Muridae
Diplothrix Oriental Okinawa, Amami, Tokuno-oshima Islands (Japan) 1 Muridae
Hapalomys Oriental Hainan Island, North Laos, South Vietnam, 2 Muridae
South-east Myanmar,Thailand, Malay Peninsula
Kadarsanomys Oriental West Giava 1 Muridae
Leggadina Australian Australia 2 Muridae
Mesembriomys Australian Australia 2 Muridae
Rhabdomys Afrotropical Eastern South Africa 1 Muridae
Stenocephalemys Afrotropical Ethiopia 2 Muridae
Srilankamys Oriental Sri Lanka 1 Muridae
Xenuromys Australian New Guinea 1 Muridae
Brachyuromys Afrotropical Central Madagascar 2 Muridae
Chibchanomys Neotropical West Venezuela, Colombia, Peru 1 Muridae
Hodomys Nearctic Mexico 1 Muridae
Juscelinomys Neotropical Central East Brazil 2 Muridae
Lenoxus Neotropical South-east Peru, West Bolivia 1 Muridae
Podoxymys Neotropical Guyana 1 Muridae
Xenomys Nearctic Mexico 1 Muridae
Zenkerella Afrotropical Central Africa 1 Anomaluridae
Eliomys Palearctic Europe, Middle East, North Africa 2 Gliridae
Muscardinus Palearctic Europe, Turkey 1 Gliridae
Glis Palearctic Europe, Middle East 1 Gliridae
Heliophobius Afrotropical Eastern South Africa 1 Bathyergidae
Dolichotis Neotropical Argentina, South Bolivia, Paraguay 2 Cavidae
Agouti Neotropical Mexico to South Brazil 2 Agoutidae
Olallamys Neotropical Colombia, West Venezuela 2 Echimydae
Isothrix Neotropical Bolivia to Central Brazil, French Guiana 3a Echimydae
Carterodon Neotropical Minas Gerais (East Brazil) 1 Echimydae
Mysateles Neotropical Cuba 5 Capromyidae
a
One species described in 1996.

Table 3 A summary of the number of species, threatened species, extinct species, and threatened and potentially threatened genera
of rodents by each zoogeographical region.

Afrotropical Oriental Palearctic Nearctic Neotropical Australasian

Number of species 375 369 367 350 568 139

Extinct species ± 4 2 2 28 9
Threatened species 53 (14.0%) 91 (24.6%) 49 (13.3%) 47 (13.3%) 56 (9.8%) 35 (25.1%)
Threatened genera 12 21 5 2 14 8
Potentially threatened genera 10 13 6 2 11 3

Ó 2001 FFI, Oryx, 35(2), 158±165

162 G. Amori and S. Gippoliti

Table 4 Priority ecoregions identi®ed in this work, major conservation threats and respective endemic threatened and potentially
threatened rodent genera.

Threatened Potentially
Ecoregion (by zoogeographical region) genera threatened genera Major threats

Palearctic region
Southern Europe and Middle East Myomimus Chionomys Deforestation and habitat
montane forests Dinaromys fragmentation
Eliomys
Glis
Muscardinus
Central Asian deserts Cardiocranius Steppes are under pressure from sheep
Euchoreutes farming, agriculture and increasing human
Selevinia population
Japan evergreen forest Glirulus Deforestation and tree plantations
Oriental region
Western Himalayan temperate Eupetaurus Euglacomys Remaining forests in the region are
forests threatened by increasing logging,
agriculture expansion and fuelwood
collection
Palawan moist forests Palawanomys Deforestation rate is increasing
Philippines moist forests Abditomys Carpomys Deforestation on much of the
Anonymomys Celaenomys Philippine Islands (i.e. western Visayan)
Archboldomys is severe
Crateromys
Limnomys
Tryphomys
Sulawesi moist forests Hyosciurus In the last 20 years Sulawesi has lost
Eropeplus 67% of lowland and montane forest
Melasmothrix
Tateomys
North-east India and Myanmar Biswamoyopterus Deforestation and habitat degradation
hill forests
Nansei Shoto archipelago forests Tokudaia Diplothrix Deforestation and introduction of exotic or
domestic predators
Lesser Sunda dry and monsoon forests Papagomys Forest clearance
Komodomys
Paulamys
South-west China temperate forests Trogopterus Aeretes Agriculture expansion and timber
Chaetocauda Proedromys harvesting
Eozapus
Vernaya
Afrotropical region
Western Sahel Felovia Habitat degradation as a result of
overgrazing
Southern African region grassland Pedetes Overgrazing of the highveld by domestic
Mystromys livestock
Eastern subdesert and dry bushland Pedetes Heliophobius Increasing agriculture
Central Togo Leimacomys Severe reduction and fragmentation of
forests
Congolian coastal forests Myosciurus Zenkerella Deforestation
Lamottemys
Ethiopian Highlands Megadendromus Stenocephalemys Deforestation and overgrazing
Muriculus
Nilopegamys
Horn of Africa desert Ammodillus Microdillus Habitat degradation as a result of
overgrazing
Madagascar dry forest Hypogeomys Cutting and burning of forests
Madagascar moist forests Gymnuromys Brachyuromys Deforestation and introduction of exotic
rodent species
Nearctic region
Mexican pine±oak forests Zygogeomys Deforestation and expansion of the
elevational range of the larger and more
aggressive Pappogeomys gymnurus

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 Rodent conservation priorities 163

Table 4 (Continued).

Ecoregion (by zoogeographical Threatened Potentially

region) genera threatened genera Major threats

Florida conifer and broadleaf forests Podomys Drier upland habitats area is declining for
urban and agricultural development
Neotropical region
Brazil Atlantic forests Abrawayaomys Blarinomys Urbanization, agricultural and logging
Phaenomys expansion
Rhagomys
Chaetomys
Northern Andean forests and Yungas Anotomys Chibchanomys Agricultural conversion, land clearing and
Dinomys Lenoxus logging
Ollallamys
GalaÂpagos Islands Nesoryzomys Competion with other introduced rodents
Greater Antillean moist forests Isolobodon Mysateles Deforestation and introduction of exotic
Plagiodontia species (such as domestic cat)
Mesocapromys
Geocapromys
Pantanal ¯ooded savannah Kunsia Carterodon Conversion to pasture and cash crops
and cerrado Juscelinomys
Monte Province and Patagonian Tympanoctomys Dolichotis Grazing, petroleum and mining activities.
steppe and grassland Loss of grassland caused by the introduction
of non-native species (such as Lepus
europaeus and Mustela vison)
Central Andean region Chinchilla Overgrazing and uncontrolled hunting
Australian region
New Guinea forests Macruromys Xenuromys Introduction of non-native mammals and
Mayermys hunting for food
Microhydromys
Neohydromys
Pseudohydromys
Solomon moist forests Solomys Introduction of non-native mammals and
hunting for food
Northern Australia and trans-¯y Xeromys Coastal vegetation is under pressure caused
savanna by the introduction of ungulates
Sandy Australian deserts Leporillus Increasing abundance of predators because
of the presence of exotic prey species such
as rabbits and mice

ecoregions, the Ethiopian highlands hold the greatest cies in our knowledge of biodiversity patterns in
number of threatened genera. groups other than mammals and birds. Two conserva-
As would be expected, most of the recognized tion strategies are required to maintain rodent diversity
crucial areas for rodent diversity conservation are also at the genus level at least. In most of the ecoregions
acknowledged to be of global relevance for biodiversity considered, charismatic vertebrates may act as `um-
conservation. The present study, however, identi®es brella' species for funding active conservation of large
some regions which are unrecognized in recent global tracts of natural habitat (Caro & O'Doherty, 1999) so
biodiversity studies (Olson & Dinerstein, 1997; Stat- offering a concrete chance of maintaining entire as-
1 ters®eld et al., 1998). This is the case of the semidesert semblages of native rodents including threatened
regions of central Asia, of the `western sahel', and of endemics (Lynam & Billick, 1999). However, especially
`central Togo' remnant forests, whereas the Horn of in the case of restricted-range or island taxa (i.e.
Africa desert is recognized by Olson & Dinerstein Nesoryzomys, Zygogeomys, etc.) no alternatives exists to
(1997) only. These results partly agree with Mares the implementation of species-speci®c strategies
(1992) conclusion for South America that mammal including research, creation of protected areas, control
diversity, and thus their conservation importance, has of exotic species, translocation and so on (Dowler et al.,
been badly neglected in the drylands. Future research 2000). Funding of speci®c conservation projects for
should clarify if these anomalies underline real pecu- these genera is the ®rst step to maintaining the
liarities of the Rodentia or, alternatively, real de®cien- exceptional diversity of rodents on our planet.

Ó 2001 FFI, Oryx, 35(2), 158±165

164 G. Amori and S. Gippoliti

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 Rodent conservation priorities 165

Biographical sketches

Dr Giovanni Amori is a researcher at the National Research

Council. His research interests include evolutionary biology,
biogeography, ecology and conservation biology of Euro-
pean insectivores and rodents. He is author of more than 60
scienti®c papers, coauthor of the Atlas of European Mammals
and has contributed a book chapter to Ecotoxicology of
Mammals. Since 1994 he has been Chairman of the IUCN/
SSC Rodent Specialist Group.

Spartaco Gippoliti's main interests are primate conserva-

tion, tropical ecology, captive breeding and zoos' role in
environmental education. He has carried out primate ®eld
surveys in Ethiopia and Guinea-Bissau, and is a member of
the IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group. He has published
in the journals African Primates, Biodiversity and Conservation,
Oryx, Primate Conservation and Zoo Biology. Currently he is
collaborating with the IUCN/SSC Rodent Specialist Group
and is compiling a database for threatened Palearctic
rodents for the Evolutionary Genetics Centre of the National
Research Council.

Ó 2001 FFI, Oryx, 35(2), 158±165