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year plan outlines ambitious targets to enhance Banteng
populations by 2022, and some actions are already underway.
A Status Review and Recovery Programme for Wild Buffalo
in Central India has been drafted by Specialist Group
members, following a workshop in Nagpur, Maharashtra,
central India, co-facilitated by AWCSG.
Thanks to the following for supporting the Saola workshop:
CEPF, Copenhagen Zoo, Leipzig Zoo, San Diego Zoo, Natural
History Museum of Denmark, ZGAP, ZooParc Beauval, Global
Wildlife Conservation, WCS, Fauna and Flora International.
Also, thanks go to these organisations for supporting the
Central India Wild buffalo workshop, which resulted in the draft
Recovery Plan: Government of Maharashtra, Satpuda
Foundation, Wildlife Trust of India, Givskud Zoo, Denmark and
IUCN Strategic Conservation Planning Task Force.
Dr James Burton
Chair, Asian Wild Cattle Specialist Group
Australasian Marsupial and Monotreme
Specialist Group
The primary activity of the AMMSG is to provide evaluations of
the conservation status of the marsupials and monotremes of
Australia, New Guinea and nearby West Pacific islands. The
main activity of 2013 was the commencement of a major review
of conservation status of all species, as part of the Global
Mammal Reassessment scheduled for completion in 2015.
Two members of the AMMSG, John Woinarski and Andrew
Burbidge, have been leading the production of a new Action
Plan for Australian mammals. This is now in proof stage for
publication by CSIRO Publishing, and covers the marsupials
and monotremes of the Australian continent and its islands. As
a result of this, we have provided an updated taxonomy of
Australia’s marsupials and monotremes; the Action Plan will
also provide the basis for Red List revisions of the Australian
species in 2014. Our other main goal for 2014 is to begin the
extension of this work to New Guinean species, for completion
in 2015.
We note with pleasure that Andrew Burbidge, one of the
authors of the Action Plan, was made an Officer of the Order
of Australia for his distinguished lifelong service to the
environment and conservation biology in Australia.
Professor Chris Johnson
Chair, Australasian Marsupial and Monotreme Specialist
Group
Mountain Pygmy Possum. © Dr Linda Broome
Bat Specialist Group
The membership of the BSG was updated by webmaster
Allyson Walsh, with 190 members of 114 countries, an average
of less than two members per country. New Red List Focal
Points were appointed during the year; Sergio Solari for the
New World and Dan Hargeaves for the Old World.
The main priority of the group remains filling the
‘conservation void’ – stimulating the formation of bat
conservation organisations in countries where none exist and
building their capacity where they do. To this end, the Cochairs
attended a ‘Bat Summit’ organized by Bat Conservation
International in Naivasha, Kenya in February 2013, with
representatives from 22 countries of sub-Saharan Africa;
which led to the establishment of Bat Conservation Africa.
RELCOM, a federation of bat conservation NGOs in Central
and South America and the Caribbean, established by Rodrigo
Medellin in 2007 during the ‘14th International Bat Research
Conference’, which he organized in Merida, Mexico, has
further increased its membership to 22 countries; updated its
website, integrated the network of AICOMs, Areas of
Importance for the Conservation of Bats in Latin America, and
is preparing its first Latin American Congress on ‘Bat Research
and Conservation’ in August 2014.
In an attempt to accelerate progress in revising The Old
World Fruit Bat Action Plan, lead authors for species accounts
are being identified rather than seeking information from all
those who have published on a particular species.
Rodrigo Medellin contributed to a symposium on Global
Bat Conservation at the ‘International Bat Research
Conference’ in Costa Rica in August, and questioned the
suitability of the current Red List criteria for bats, requiring a
review of how and whether the criteria can be applied to bats.
Paul Racey contributed to a workshop organized by The
South East Asian Bat Conservation Research Unit (SEABCRU)
in Phnom Penh, Cambodia (12–21 October) for students and
researchers of flying foxes which involved methods of
monitoring large colonies of Pteropus.
Paul Racey visited the Seychelles in March to discuss with
government officials, legal protection for ‘the rarest bat in the
world’ – the Seychelles sheath-tailed bat Coleura seychellensis
(about 60 individuals remain), and to teach a workshop on
monitoring and conservation of this species, as part of the
Darwin Initiative project on EDGE (Evolutionarily Distinct and
Globally Endangered) species.
Professor Paul A. Racey and Dr Rodrigo A. Medellin
Co-chairs, Bat Specialist Group
Coleura seychellensis. © Justin Gerlach
Specialist Groups, Task Forces and Red List Authorities
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