CNDDB News Blog

Courtesy of U.S Fish and Wildlife Service (CC BY 2.0) via flickr

The California Natural Diversity Database is updating our element (species) records to reflect the 3 federal Distinct Population Segments (DPS). We had previously tracked California tiger salamander as a single species concept with notes about different statuses (Federally Endangered/Federally Threatened, State Threatened):

CNDDB will now be tracking the individual populations:

California Amphibian and Reptile Species of Special Concern (Thomson, Wright, and Shaffer 2016), a collaborative project of California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the University of California, Davis, is now available for PDF download. The publication provides a synthesis of the conservation risk faced by California’s amphibians and reptiles that qualify as Species of Special Concern. Using a full list of the native amphibian and reptile taxa known to occur in the state and eight metrics that capture key elements of declining and at-risk species, 73 nominee taxa were scored based on an extensive literature review and evaluation by a Technical Advisory Committee. Peer-reviewed species accounts for each of the resulting 45 Species of Special Concern, now available in PDF format, provide available information on their basic biology, known or hypothesized reasons for decline, proposed management, and future research needs. The result is a clear, transparent publication that explicitly states why decisions were made, supports them with a summary of the best available science, and contributes in a meaningful way to the conservation goals of our State Wildlife Action Plan.

A curious mind never runs short of unanswered questions. While the great mysteries remain unsolved, we can offer to shed some light on the CNDDB.

We have gathered our most frequently asked user questions and created a new FAQ page. Topics include CNDDB lingo, data submission, tools and products, subscriptions, and more.

If you take a look at the page and feel like you still have unanswered questions, write us an email and we will get in touch with you. If we get enough questions, we may address those in future blog posts and/or update the FAQ page.