Does exists a "standard methodology" to define a species like a flagship species?
I know some methodologies are based on surveys, but I would like to know if we have others types of methodologies? (e.g. number of public papers discussing on a species in a country, number of pictures takes in a specific area, etc...)
Actually, I search a methodology based on social data to quantify the interest of species for considering them like flagship/iconic/emblematic species.
Do you think, facebook, instagram, twitter could be sufficient for that?
Does exists a package to search directly keywords in google search?...
Thanks for your help,
PL
Hello Pierre-Louis,
We developed a multi-criteria approach for selecting landscape species:
Khosravi, R., Hemami, M.R. (2019) Identifying landscape species for ecological planning. Ecological Indicators, 99: 140-148. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2018.12.010
However, I think the following studies may be more helpful with regard to your question:
Bowen-Jones, E., Entwistle, A. (2002) Identifying appropriate flagship species: the importance of culture and local contexts. Oryx, 36: 189–195.
Ducarme F., Luque G.M., Courchamp F (2013) What are ‘charismatic species’ for conservation biologists? BioScience Master Review, 10:1–8.
Schlegel, J., Breuer, G., Rupf, R. (2015) Local Insects as Flagship Species to Promote Nature Conservation? A Survey among Primary School Children on Their Attitudes toward Invertebrates, Anthrozoös, 28:2, 229-245, DOI: 10.1080/08927936.2015.11435399
Dear Mahmoud-Reza Hemami ,
thanks for your answer but I think your first paper is more oriented on the "keystone species" and for the rest I know already these papers and I search a method not only based on survey, but thanks for your time.
Interesting question. Not sure what you mean by what defines one, as a flagship species is simply any species that generates a strong emotional response and by doing so helps protects many other species or threatened ecosystems, etc. But I'm sure you already know that. I've never heard of any standard methodology for identifying flagship species, but then I've never formally looked either. Seems many current flagship species have that designation as a by product of their long history of generating a strong emotional response in others prior to conservation efforts and conservationists have simply used that knowledge to advantage, e.g. polar bears. Using social media as you suggested might help uncover which species are much loved in various countries/parts of the world then seems one could overlay the ranges of those species with where conservation need is greatest? Kind of like a hotspot approach, i.e. where they looked globally for high rates of endemism then overlaid that with threatened areas due to human impact globally to come up with the hotspots.
The problem with your question is that it is not really a scientific one, but more a sociological one. In many ways the iconic or flagship species are those which attract money for their conservation and management. Fortunately many of these are top predators and hence require an extensive environment in which to live and hunt, thereby conserving their environment and the huge range of biodiversity that their environments support. It is essentially those species which catch the public's imagination (and perhaps also the politicians' imagination).
At a different level, such as for the wildflowers representing the British Counties, a few species can be listed because they are beautiful, rare, restricted in their range more or less to that area, or whatever, and then the public can be asked to vote for a favourite. The vote could be through social media or might be organised by a specialised society with a particular interest in whichever taxonomic group is of interest.
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