Please give me a big set of information on "Endemic Species" for my Biology Project.
Definition of an endemic species: a species which is only found in a given region or location and nowhere else in the world. This definition requires that the region that the species is endemic to, be defined, such as a “site endemic” (e.g. just found on Mount Celaque),6 a “national endemic” (e.g. found only in Honduras), a “geographical range endemic” (e.g. found in the Himalayan region, which however covers several Himalayan countries and therefore is not a national endemic), or a political region endemic (e.g. found in countries of Central America). Taken to an extreme, a cosmopolite species is still endemic to Earth!
From these examples it is clear that the use of the mere term endemic as such is rather vague and without too much value by itself. National and political region endemism of large countries or regions has far less significance than endemism of small countries and very limited range endemism. An endemic species for Brazil (Sorry guys), which covers half the territory of South Ameriica, just is not as special as a the endemic hummingbird that lives in just one valley in Honduras. In the context of this study, we only take into consideration nationally endemic species. There is a thorough justification for that. Conservation can only be carried out under national legislation, and national endemics fully depend on the effort and success of conservation in the country where it lives. For smaller countries, the concept of national endemism automatically means that nationally endemic species have very limited ranges and thus, by the IUCN criteria must always be considered to be at least vulnerable.
It must be noted, that the concept of endemism very much depends on the knowledge of the geographical range of a species. Usually, a newly discovered species has only been found in a limited site, and with the knowledge of that moment, it should be considered a site and national endemic. However, this only lasts until the moment that someone discovers it in another country. At that moment its original status of national endemism will be lost. This is bound to be the case for many endemic organisms which are difficult to be noticed or recognised, such as species from very large and complex groups (plants, arthropods) or small organisms. Endemic status of well studied, conspicuous taxa with manageable numbers of species (birds, mammals, herpetofauna, icthyofauna), tend to be more stable.
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