A year after our initial meeting in Rome the project has made good progress and is on-track with the timetable we proposed there.
The main achievements this year have been:
- We have agreed the exact boundaries of the area to be mapped and prepared maps of the CGRS cells for each country (available here).
- We have agreed a full species list for the area, annotated with cases where taxonomic decisions may need to be made as the project moves forward. We recognise that changes may need to be considered during the lifetime of the project and have set up a system for doing this,
- We have appointed coordinators for almost every country involved in the project, as well as a small number of topic coordinators to help with the work (available here).
For 2018, we are planning an opportunity for all our coordinators to get together and discuss topics relating to the collection, management and storage of data for the atlas. We will also be opening discussions with a publisher to begin the process of planning the publication and we will also start looking for authors to prepare the species accounts.
- Details
- Written by: Tony Mitchell-Jones
A new Mammal Atlas for Ireland has just been published. The Atlas of Mammals in Ireland 2010-2015 is the first publication to map all 72 terrestrial and marine mammals that occur in Ireland. Almost a quarter of a million mammal sightings were used to produce the distribution maps. The full colour maps compare the pre-2010 distribution to 2010-2015 distribution. The 200 page hardback book also contains especially written species accounts by 42 leading authorities on Irish mammals as well as chapters on: legal protection, the origins of Irish mammals, mammal research in Ireland, advances in genetic techniques and more.
The Atlas is now available to purchase online: http://www.nhbs.com/title/213914/atlas-of-mammals-in-ireland-2010-2015?bkfno=234271
- Details
- Written by: Tony Mitchell-Jones
The Atlas of European Mammals was published in 1999, some 15 years ago, and is now out of print. The Atlas has been widely-used, with more than 450 citations on the Web of Science and the data have also been included in various European distributional data collections. Although the atlas data remain available through these channels, or via this website, it must be recognised that the dataset, which was finalised in 1998, is ageing and we can be less confident as time goes on that it accurately reflects the current distribution of mammals in Europe.
Distributional atlases remain a fundamental tool for research and conservation. Whilst most conservation delivery is at a national level, it is important that a broader picture of the distribution of species is available to help set context and priorities. Conservation requirements for species protected by the EU Habitats Directive provide a good example of this approach.
With this in mind, in 2015 some members of the original Editorial Group proposed the idea of a second edition of the atlas, updating information for the area already covered and extending the area to the whole of geographic Europe. Early discussions with mammalogists across Europe indicated that there was a high level of interest in this proposal and so an open meeting was held in Rome at the end of November 2016. Discussions at the meeting set the direction for the new project and work began on defining the scope of the project and recruiting volunteers across Europe to help with its delivery.
By early 2016, a Steering Group had been set up consisting of:
- Andrey Lissovsky (RUS)
- Boris Kryštufek (SVN)
- Ferdia Marnell (IRL)
- Friederike Spitzenberger (AUT)
- Giovanni Amori (ITA)
- Jan Zima (CZE)
- Johan Thissen (NLD)
- Laurent Schley (LUX)
- Tony Mitchell-Jones (GBR)
- Vladimír Vohralík (CZE)
Work is now (January 2016) under way to appoint national coordinators and topic coordinators, who will form the Delivery Group for the atlas.
Documents relating to the structure and development of this project can be found under the documents menu heading.
- Details
- Written by: Tony Mitchell-Jones
Photo: Mustafa Sözen
The first meeting to discuss the 2nd edition of the Atlas of European Mammals (EMMA2) was held in Rome on 25026 November 2016. 33 people from 21 countries attended, though 2 were not present for this photo on Saturday morning.
The agenda, notes and report of the meeting can be downloaded by following the menu EMMA2>Documents.
- Details
- Written by: Tony Mitchell-Jones
The Atlas of European Mammals was published in 1999, with most of the data being rather older than this. The Atlas is now out of print and the underlying data, though still available through this website, are getting more and more out of date. Is the time right for a new project to update the Atlas?
Since the beginning of the first atlas project in 1988, mammal mapping across Europe has improved greatly. Many countries have now published their own mammal atlas, or have a project to do so, and some have live on-line databases that can produce a new map on demand. However, the picture is uneven and our Atlas remains the only publication that covers a significant part of Europe in a consistent and objective way, using mammal records supplied by each country. It remains an important source work for anyone studying the distribution of mammals at a large scale.
A new atlas project would, of course, be a cooperative venture, involving input from mammalogists or mammal mappers from each country. For some, this may be relatively straightforward, for others much more challenging. An immediate question is whether it would be possible to extend coverage to the whole of geographic Europe, rather than just western Europe as previously. This almost doubles the area to be mapped and includes large areas where mammalogists are few and far-between.
In order to stimulate debate and help us decide whether such a project is worthwhile, we have prepared a short discussion document setting out some of the challenges and questions to be addressed. We would welcome views on this and also indications of interest from national Mammal Societies, holders of national mammal records or others with an interest in the subject. Please e-mail
Update
A meeting will be held in Rome on 25-26 November 2016 to discuss this proposal. An invitation for the meeting can be found here, the Agenda here and some notes about the topics to be discussed can be found here. If you are interested in attending this meeting, please e-mail
- Details
- Written by: Administrator