Reporting Units

In this first report on the general status of Canada’s species, the biological reporting unit is the species, commonly considered to mean populations of organisms that do not usually interbreed with other populations, even where they overlap in space and time. Species are the most common and recognizable units of biological classification used in conservation, but they are not the only one. For instance, where populations of the same species are separated from one another, they may become genetically distinct, leading to the formation of subspecies, which may look and behave differently and so warrant separate consideration. Similarly, harvested species are sometimes divided into “stocks”: separate populations that may require different management approaches because they experience different ecological pressures. While these divisions below the species level may have merit, there tends to be more disagreement over the precise limits and biological signifi-cance of differences observed at this finer scale. Moreover, relatively few species have been examined closely enough to distinguish candidate subspecies or stocks. Accordingly, in general, only species were assigned general status ranks, rather than subspecies or distinct populations. However, in some cases, the province, territory, or federal agency with lead responsibility for a species has further information on subspecies or on special populations. Where additional information of this sort is available (particularly for birds), it accompanies the general status rank for the species in the data table available on the cd-rom at the back of the printed report or on the web site at www.wildspecies.ca. For further information about the general status of species for a particular province or territory or about the general status of a particular species group (e.g., birds, marine mammals, fish), see the list of contacts at the end of this report (see Appendix 1).

While biological reporting units focused at a single scale (species), geographical reporting units were employed at two scales. All provinces and territories assigned general status ranks to species, and in most cases species were also assessed for their national general status. There are two important exceptions. First, the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador assigned separate general status ranks for species that occur on the island of Newfoundland and those that occur in mainland Labrador. These two regions are significantly different from one another in terms of climate and soils and, therefore, in terms of habitat and wildlife species and their distribu-tions. Furthermore, there is little movement of species between the two areas.

These differences require that the province consider and manage the island and mainland wildlife resources separately. The second exception is for marine species (in this report, marine mammals and marine turtles). These species are reported by ocean region, reflecting the fact that, in many cases, these species (e.g., whales) are more difficult to associate with a given province or territory. A map of all regions with which general status ranks are associated is presented here.