Endemism

Endemism

Context: The Black-and-orange Flycatcher (BOF) and the Nilgiri Flycatcher (NIF), two species endemic to the Western Ghats, could suffer a loss of 31 per cent and 46 per cent of their range respectively by 2050 due to climate change, according to a study published in Current Science.

Concept:

What is Endemism?

• Endemism is the condition of being endemic, or restricted in geographical distribution to an area or region.
• Endemism is an ecological classification in that it describes the range or distribution of a species, or group of species.

Difference between Endemic and Indigenous

• Endemism is not to be confused with indigenous, a term which refers to the origins of a species. Indigenous refers to where a group originated. A species can be both endemic and indigenous to an area.
• However, some species thrive and exceed the bounds of their original indigenous location. This means that the species is no longer endemic, but is still indigenous to the original area.
• An endemic species is a species which is restricted geographically to a particular area.

Types of endemism

• Paleoendemism: Endemism in a species can arise through a species going extinct in other regions.
• Neoendemism: A new species are always endemic to the region in which they first appear.

Endemism and species survival

• It is not always the case that an endemic species is vulnerable to extinction, as many globally distributed species are also considered threatened or endangered.
• Endemism sometimes protects species from being exploited globally, simply because of the fact that the species only exists in a small area.
• This can even make the species easier to protect, because the land can be placed under a conservation easement to restrict the construction and human impact on the land.
• Examples: Asiatic Lion in Gir Forest, Lion-tailed Macaque in Western Ghats of India, Nilgiri Tahr, Malabar large spotted civet, Nilgiri Blue Robin, Jerdon’s Corser, Nilgai, Nicobar megapode, Black-and-orange Flycatcher (BOF) and the Nilgiri Flycatcher (NIF), two species endemic to the Western Ghats are some of the species of animals endemic to India