Topic Overview

This topic introduces distribution, status and ecology of key flagship species in Asia distributed from near the sea level to the top of Himalayas namely giant panda, Tiger, Rhino, Pangolin, Snow leopard and Urang-utang, and further discuss about their key threats and conservation measures. You will become familiar with the indicator species concepts such as flagship, keystone and umbrella species and debate on single species conservation approach.

Learning objectives

• Describe indicator species concepts and discuss single species conservation approach and its consequences in Asia.
• Describe status, distribution and ecology of key flagship species in Asia.

Required & Optional Readings

Required Readings

• Small, E. (2012). The new Noah's Ark: beautiful and useful species only. Part 2. The chosen species. Biodiversity, 13(1), 37-53.
• Li, S., McShea, W. J., Wang, D., Gu, X., Zhang, X., Zhang, L., & Shen, X. (2020). Retreat of large carnivores across the giant panda distribution range. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 1-5.
• McGowan, J., Beaumont, L. J., Smith, R. J., Chauvenet, A. L., Harcourt, R., Atkinson, S. C., ... & Dudaniec, R. Y. (2020). Conservation prioritization can resolve the flagship species conundrum. Nature communications, 11(1), 1-7.

Fundamental Concepts

PPT Presentations:

• Topic 1.3 History of Conservation and Traditional Knowledge of Biodiversity in Asia.pdf Download Topic 1.3 History of Conservation and Traditional Knowledge of Biodiversity in Asia.pdf

Self-test Quiz (For certificate learning only)

After viewing lecture PPT presentation for this topic, take 10 minutes to take this self-test quiz. It is intended to serve as a quick check points of your learning progress about the factual content for this topic. Immediate feedback or answer key will be provided after your attempt. Click Self-test Quiz 1.3 to start.

Online Discussions (For certificate learning only)

Each week you will participant in the topic discussions of the week. The purpose of these discussions is to enable you to critically discuss and apply the core concepts you learned each week. Each online weekly topic discussion will include two parts: 1) your initial response to topic discussion questions posted by the instructor; and 2) your peer comment on other peer posts. Instructor will post one or two discussion questions related to the assigned module and topic every week. Response to these online discussion question and subsequent peer comment on these responses is mandatory. By doing this, you will enhance your knowledge through multiple perspectives posted by your peers. These questions will be focused on the most important aspect of the assigned module and topic and reflection on how you can apply these concept and tools from the assigned module and topic in your own context. For detailed requirements and grading rubric go to Online Discussions page.

To join the online topic discussions for this week go to Online Topic Discussion 1.3.

Graded Assignment for the Week (For certificate learning only)

NA.