No longer Data Deficient: recategorizing the Annamite striped rabbit Nesolagus timminsi as Endangered

• Published in: Oryx 2020-03, Vol.54 (2), p.151-151
• Main Authors: Tilker, Andrew, Nguyen, An, Timmins, R.J., Gray, Thomas N.E., Steinmetz, Robert, Abramov, Alexei V., Wilkinson, Nicholas
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cameras; Endangered & extinct species; Extinction; Protected areas; Threatened species; Wildlife conservation
• ISSN: 0030-6053; 1365-3008
• DOI: 10.1017/S0030605319001078

Global Wildlife Conservation, Austin, USA † Also at: IUCN Lagomorph Specialist Group ‡ Also at: IUCN Saola Working Group Approximately 15% of all mammal species are categorized as Data Deficient on the IUCN Red List (Schipper et al., 2008, Science, 322, 225–230), a status that potentially hampers conservation planning, prioritization and action (Bland et al., 2015, Conservation Biology, 29, 250–259). Landscape-scale camera trapping across a protected area complex in central Viet Nam has recorded low Annamite striped rabbit occupancies, with most detections in the less accessible and better patrolled parts of the surveyed area (Tilker et al., 2018, Oryx, 54, 178–187). Together, this body of information indicates that Annamite striped rabbit populations have almost certainly declined by > 50% over the past 10 years and, given increasing levels of snaring, will probably decline by a similar rate over the next decade, triggering a categorization as Endangered based on criteria A2d + 3d + 4d (Tilker et al., 2019, The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: e.T41209A45181925).