Understanding the biodiversity of our planet is critical for developing conservation strategies. This series of datasets shows the biodiversity of birds, mammals, and amphibians. Said simply, these maps show how many kinds of birds or mammals or amphibians live in each area around the world. These maps look at just the animals on land and don’t include any marine animals. Also included are corresponding maps of where the threatened species live, the ones at greatest risk of extinction. Knowing where these threatened species live can help direct conservation efforts to ensure that the places with the most vulnerable species are being protected.
The species data for this dataset comes from the International Union for Conservation of Nature and includes over 6,800 different known species of amphibians. Everything from the Red-spotted Glassfrog to the Sharp-ribbed Salamander to the Mallorcan Midwife Toad have been included. Amphibians do well in the really wet, warm parts of the world like the Amazon, southeast Brazil, and west Africa. The southeastern USA does well too thanks to an exceptional diversity of salamanders. The most diverse areas have more than a hundred species of amphibians!
Science On a Sphere
