Biogeographical Regions Introductory article

Richard Huggett, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK Article Contents

. P. L. Sclater, A. R. Wallace and the Foundational Units
of Biogeography
Species are not uniformly distributed over the land surface. Fauna and flora display regional
. Mammals
differences. The largest regions of animals and plants are biogeographical regions, each
. Floral Regions
bearing a distinctive fauna and flora. Some families and even some orders of animals are
. Comparisons and Contrasts between Taxa
endemic to particular biogeographical regions. Other families are shared by two or more
. Transitional Zones and Filters
regions. A few families are cosmopolitan, being found in all biogeographical regions.
. The Applied Use of Biogeographical Regions: Their
Place in Conservation

P. L. Sclater, A. R. Wallace and the . Summary

Foundational Units of Biogeography

Australia and New Guinea. The New World he divided
Different places harbour different kinds of animals and into North America and South America. Sclater’s schema
plants. The fauna of Africa is unlike the fauna of North prompted a flurry of papers by English-speaking zoolo-
America; the flora of Japan is unlike the flora of South gists, including Thomas Henry Huxley and Joel Asaph
Africa. These regional differences in the distribution of Allen, each of whom promulgated his own favoured
species became increasingly manifest as the world was geographical classification. In his The Geographical Dis-
explored. George Leclerc, Compte de Buffon (1707–1788) tribution of Animals (1876), Wallace reviewed the compet-
studied the then known tropical mammals from the Old ing systems, arguing persuasively in favour of adopting
World (Africa) and the New World (Central and South Sclater’s six regions, or realms as Wallace dubbed them.
America). He found that they had not a single species in Sclater’s system and Wallace’s minor amendments to it
common. Later comparisons of African and South provided a nomenclature that survives today (Figure 1).
American plants, insects and reptiles evinced the same Later suggestions were minor variations on the Sclater–
pattern. Wallace theme. Sclater and Wallace identified six regions –
By the nineteenth century, it was clear that the land Nearctic, Neotropical, Palaearctic, Ethiopian, Oriental
surface could be divided into biogeographical regions, each and Australian. Together, the Nearctic and Palaearctic
of which carries a distinct set of animals and a distinct set of regions form Neogaea (the New World), while other
plants. Augustin-Pyramus de Candolle considered plants regions form Palaeogaea (the Old World). Wallace’s
and identified areas of endemism, that is botanical regions, contribution was to identify subregions, four per region,
each possessing a certain number of plants peculiar to which correspond largely to de Candolle’s botanical
them. He listed 20 such botanical regions or areas of regions. Indeed, the nineteenth-century classification of
endemism in 1820, and by 1838 had added another score,
bringing the total to 40. In 1826, James Cowles Prichard, a
zoologist, distinguished seven regions of mammals: the
Arctic region, the temperate zone, the equatorial regions,
the Indian isles, the Papuan region, the Australian region,
and the extremities of America and Africa. William
Swainson modified this scheme in 1835, by taking account
of the ‘five recorded varieties of humans’, to give five
regions: the European (or Caucasian) region, the Asiatic
(or Mongolian) region, the American region, the Ethiopian
(or African) region, and the Australian (or Malay) region.
The early ideas of Prichard and Swainson on animal
distributions were eclipsed by the seminal work of an
English ornithologist, Philip Lutley Sclater, and the
eminent English biogeographer and naturalist, Alfred
Russel Wallace. Using bird distributions, Sclater (1858)
recognized two basic divisions (or ‘creations’, as he termed
them) – the Old World (Creatio Paleogeana) and the New Nearctic Neotropical Palaearctic
World (Creatio Neogeana) – and six regions. The Old
Ethiopian Oriental Australian
World he divided into Europe and northern Asia, Africa
south of the Sahara, India and southern Asia, and Figure 1 The six faunal regions delimited by Sclater and Wallace.

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 Biogeographical Regions
biogeographical regions was essentially an attempt to
group areas of endemism into a hierarchical classification
according to the strengths of their relationships.
It is surprising and noteworthy that the distributions of
species with good dispersal abilities, including plants,
insects and birds, tend to fall within traditional zoogeo-
graphical regional confines. The avifaunas of North
America and Europe contain several families and many
genera that are not shared by the two regions, even though
dispersal across the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by
‘accidental visitors’ is noted every year. Even long-distance
migrant bird taxa tend to be confined either to the eastern
hemisphere or to the western hemisphere, where they
migrate between high and low latitudes, and appear ill-
disposed to disperse east–west between continents.
Mammals
Of the six faunal regions delineated by Sclater and Wallace,
the Palaearctic is the largest. It includes Europe, North
Africa, the Near East and much of Asia (but not the Indian
subcontinent or Southeast Asia). Its mammal fauna is
quite rich, with some 40 families. Only two of these families
are endemic to the Palaearctic region – the blind mole rats
(Spalacidae) and the Seleviniidae, represented by one
species, the dzhalman, which is a small insectivorous
rodent.
The Nearctic region encompasses nearly all the New
World north of tropical Mexico. Its fauna is diverse and
includes families with a largely tropical distribution, such
as the sac-winged or sheath-tailed bats (Emballonuridae),
vampire bats (Desmodontidae), and javelinas or peccaries
(Tayassuidae), and largely boreal families, such as the
jumping mice (Zapodidae), beavers (Castoridae), and
bears (Ursidae). Only two Nearctic families are endemic
to the region: the Aplodontidae, which contains one
species, the mountain beaver or sewellel, and the Antilo-
capridae, which also contains one species, the pronghorn
antelope. Two other families are almost endemic: the
pocket gophers (Geomyidae) live in North America,
Central America and northern Colombia; and the kangar-
oo rats and pocket mice (Heteromyidae) live in North
America, Mexico, Central America and northwestern
South America.
The Neotropical region covers all the New World south
of tropical Mexico. It boasts some 27 endemic families of
mammals: the solenodons (Solenodontidae), the recently
extinct West Indian shrews (Nesophontidae), New World
monkeys (Cebidae), marmosets (Callithricidae), caeono-
lestids or marsupial mice (Caenolestidae), the monito del
monte or ‘monkey of the mountains’ (Microbiotheriidae),
anteaters (Myrmecophagidae), sloths (Bradypodidae),
and 12 caviomorph rodent families. The rodent families
are the degus, coruros, and rock rats (Octodontidae), tuco-
2 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LIFE SCIENCES / & 2002 Macmillan Publishers Ltd, Nature Publishing Group / www.els.net
tucos (Ctenomyidae), spiny rats (Echimyidae), rat chinch-
illas (Abrocomidae), hutias and coypus (Capromyidae),
chinchillas and viscachas (Chinchillidae), agouties (Dasy-
proctidae), pacas (Cuniculidae), the pacarana (Dinomyi-
dae), guinea-pigs and their relatives (Caviidae), capybaras
(Hydrochoeridae), and the recently extinct quemi and its
allies (Heptaxodontidae). The other seven endemic Neo-
tropical families are bats – bulldog bats (Noctilionidae),
New World leaf-nosed bats (Phyllostomidae), moustached
bats, ghost-faced bats and naked-backed bats (Mormoo-
pidae), vampire bats (Desmondontidae, which some
authorities include with the Phyllostomidae), funnel-eared
bats (Natalidae), smoky or thumbless bats (Furipteridae)
and disc-winged bats (Thyropteridae).
The Ethiopian region encompasses Madagascar, Africa
south of a somewhat indeterminate line running across the
Sahara, and a southern strip of the Arabian peninsula. It
has about 15 endemic families, almost as many as the
Neotropical region. The families are the giraffes (Giraffi-
dae), hippopotamuses (Hippopotamidae, though those
living on the Lower Nile are technically in the Palaearctic
region), the aardvark (Orycteropodidae), tenrecs (Tenre-
cidae), the Old World sucker-footed bats (Myzopodidae),
lemurs (Lemuridae), woolly lemurs (Indriidae), aye-ayes
(Daubentoniidae), two families of shrew, and five families
of rodent. The shrew families are the golden moles
(Chrysochloridae) and otter shrews (Potamogalidae).
The rodent families are the scaly-tailed squirrels (Anom-
aluridae), the spring hare or Cape jumping hare (Pedeti-
dae), cane rats (Thryonomydiae), the rock rat or dassie rat
(Petromyidae), and African mole rats (Bathyergidae). Two
other families – the elephant shrews (Macroscelididae) and
gundis (Ctenodactylidae) – are confined to Africa but
range into the north of the continent, which is part of the
Palaearctic region.
The Oriental region covers India, Indo-China, southern
China, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesian islands
as far east as Wallace’s line. It has just four endemic
families: spiny dormice (Platacanthomyidae), tree shrews
(Tupaiidae), tarsiers (Tarsiidae), and flying lemurs or
colugos (Cynocephalidae). It also has one endemic bat
family, the Craseonycteridae, represented by a single
species known as Kitti’s hog-nosed bat or bumblebee
bat, which was discovered in Thailand in 1973.
The Australian region includes mainland Australia,
Tasmania, New Guinea, Sulawesi, and many small
Indonesian islands. It possesses some 19 endemic families
of mammals: the echidnas or spiny anteaters (Tachyglos-
sidae), the platypus (Ornithorhynchidae), marsupial ‘mice’
and ‘cats’ (Dasyuridae), the Tasmanian wolf (Thylacini-
dae), the numbat or banded anteater (Myrmecobiidae), the
marsupial mole (Notoryctidae), bandicoots and bilbies
(Peramelidae), burrowing bandicoots (Thylacomyidae),
spiny bandicoot and mouse bandicoot (Peroryctidae),
striped possum, Leadbeater’s possum and wrist-winged
gliders (Petauridae), feathertail gliders (Acrobatidae),
 Biogeographical Regions

pigmy possums (Burramyidae), brush-tailed possums,

cuscuses, scaly-tailed possums (Phalangeridae), ringtail 1
possums and great glider (Pseudocheiridae), kangaroos
and wallabies (Macropodidae), rat kangaroos, potoroos, 2a
2b

and bettongs (Potoroidae), koalas (Phascolarctidae), 8

7a
4
7b 5
wombats (Vombatidae), and the noolbender or honey 20
3
6
possum (Tarsipedidae). 24 9
18
10 11 17 22
25
28 12 19
23 26
27 16 15
30 13
14 33 21
29 34
31
32
Floral Regions 36
36 37
35

In The Geography of the Flowering Plants (1974), British

botanist Ronald Good summarized the distribution of
living angiosperms by adapting a scheme devised by Adolf
Boreal region Neotropical region
Engler during the 1870s. Good delineated six major floral
1 Arctic and Sub-arctic 24 Caribbean
regions, though he styled them ‘kingdoms’: the Boreal 2 Euro–Siberian 25 Venezuela and Guiana
region, the Palaeotropical region, the Neotropical region, a. Europe 26 Amazon
the Australian region, South African (Cape) region and the b. Asia 27 South Brazilian
3 Sino–Japanese 28 Andrean
Antarctic floral region. Each of these comprises a number 4 W. and C. Asiatic 29 Pampas
of subregions (Good called them regions), of which there 5 Mediterranean 30 Juan Fernandez
are 37 in total (Figure 2). The Boreal floral region spans 6 Macaronesian
7 Atlantic North American
North America and Asia, which share many families, a. Northern
including the birches, alders, hazels and hornbeams b. Southern
Pacific North American South African region
(Betulaceae), mustard (Cruciferae), primrose (Primula- 8
31 Cape
ceae) and buttercup (Ranunculaceae). Six subregions are
recognized: the Arctic and Subarctic, East Asia, Western Palaeotropical region
and Central Asia, the Mediterranean, Euro-Siberia and 9 African–Indian Desert
10 Sudanese Park Steppe
North America. The Palaeotropical region covers most of 11 N. E. African Highland Australian region
Africa, the Arabian peninsula, India, southeast Asia, and 12 W. African Rainforest 32 N. and E. Australian
parts of the western and central Pacific. The subregions are 13 E. African Steppe 33 S. W. Australian
14 South African 34 C. Australian
not firmly agreed, but Malesia, Indo-Africa, and Polynesia 15 Madagascar
are commonly recognized. The Malesian subregion is 16 Ascension and St. Helena
exceptionally rich in forms, with about 400 endemic 17 Indian
18 Continental S. E. Asiatic
genera. Madagascar, which is part of the Indo-African 19 Malaysian Antarctic region
subregion but sometimes taken as a separate region, has 12 20 Hawaiian 35 New Zealand
endemic families and 350 endemic genera. The Neotropical 21 New Caledonia 36 Patagonian
22 Melanesia and Micronesia 37 S. Temp.
region covers most of South America, save the southern tip 23 Polynesia Oceanic Islands
and a southwestern strip, Central America, Mexico
(excepting the dry northern and central sections), and the Figure 2 The six floral regions and 37 subregions mapped by Good.
West Indies and southern extremity of Florida. It is
gloriously rich floristically, housing 47 endemic families
and nearly 3000 endemic genera. The Cape region of
South Africa is, for its small size, rich in plants, with
Comparisons and Contrasts between
11 endemic families and 500 endemic genera. The Taxa
Australian region is highly distinct with 19 endemic
families, 500 endemic genera, and over 6000 flowering- The world’s regional faunas are linked with each other in
plant species. The Antarctic region has a curious complex ways, as are the world’s regional floras. Connec-
geography and includes a coastal strip of Chile and the tions at the species level are weak, except between the
southern tip of South America, the Antarctic and Palaearctic and Nearctic regions, but some regions share
subantarctic islands, and New Zealand. The subantarctic genera and families. Each biogeographical region pos-
subregion (southern Chile, Patagonia and New Zealand) sesses two groups of families: those that are endemic or
carries a distinctive flora involving some 50 genera, of peculiar to the region, and those that are shared with other
which the southern beech (Nothofagus) is a characteristic regions. Although no agreed system of naming shared taxa
element. (species, genera, families, or whatever) exists, a useful

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 Biogeographical Regions
scheme suggests that taxa shared between two biogeogra-
phical regions are ‘characteristic’, taxa shared between
three or four biogeographical regions are ‘semi-cosmopo-
litan’, and taxa shared between five or more biogeogra-
phical regions are ‘cosmopolitan’. Links between regions
are suggested by a mixing of some faunal or floral elements.
A Malesian floral element is present in the tropical
rainforests of northeastern Queensland, Australia. Ant-
arctic and Palaeotropical flora interdigitate in South Island
of New Zealand, Tasmania and the Australian Alps. The
strong affinity of the Ethiopian and Oriental faunal regions
is reflected in a number of shared families: bamboo rats
(Rhizomyidae), elephants (Elephantidae), rhinoceroses
(Rhinocerotidae), chevrotains (Tragulidae), lorises and
pottos (Lorisidae), galagos or bushbabies (Galagonidae),
apes (Pongidae), and pangolins or scaly anteaters (Man-
idae).
A new look at mammal regions
The similarities and differences of different biogeographi-
cal regions are brought out clearly by applying modern
methods of numerical classification to mammal distribu-
tions. By applying multidimensional scaling to data on the
distribution of 115 mammal families (wholly marine
families and the human family were omitted) in Wallace’s
24 subregions, Charles H. Smith delineated similar regions
to those in the Sclater–Wallace scheme, but significant
differences emerged. In Smith’s 1983 system, there are four
regions – Holarctic, Latin American, Afro-Tethyan and
Island – and 10 subregions (Figure 3). The Holarctic region
comprises the Nearctic and the Palaearctic subregions; the
Latin American region comprises the Neotropical and
Argentine subregions; the Afro-Tethyan region comprises
the Mediterranean, Ethiopian and Oriental subregions;
and the Island region comprises the Australian, the West
Palaearctic
Nearctic
West Mediterranean
Indian
Neotropical
Ethiopian
Australian
Madagascan
Argentine
Latin Afro-
Holarctic
American Tethyan
Figure 3 The four faunal regions and 10 subregions recognized by Smith.
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Indian and Madagascan subregions. Each subregion is as
unique as it can be compared with all other subregions.
Several features of Smith’s system are intriguing. First, it
reveals a close similitude between the mammal families of
the Ethiopian and Oriental regions. Second, it includes the
Mediterranean subregion within the Ethiopian region,
thus excluding it from the Palaearctic region. Third, it
promotes Madagascar and the West Indies to distinct
island subregions, removing them from the Ethiopian
region and the Neotropical region, respectively.
The regional richness and endemicity of mammal
families in Smith’s regions and subregions are as follows:
the Holarctic has 36 families, of which six (17%) are
endemic; the Latin American region has 48 families, of
which 20 (42%) are endemic; the Afro-Tethyan region has
65 families, of which 29 (45%) are endemic; and the Island
region has 35 families, of which 15 (43%) are endemic. Of
the 115 mammal families used in the analysis, 43 (37%) are
endemic to subregions. The lowest subregional endemicity
occurs in the Palaearctic subregion, with no endemic
families, and the highest in the Neotropical subregion, with
nine endemic families. Smith’s analysis also indicated that
the Nearctic, Palaearctic, Mediterranean and Oriental
subregions have high affinities with the faunas of other
subregions, whereas the Argentine and Australian sub-
regions have low affinities with the faunas of other
subregions. Furthermore, the effects of isolation or
inaccessibility (or both) are reflected in the nature of the
Neotropical, Argentine, Ethiopian, Australian, West
Indian and Madagascan faunas.
Faunal and floral regions compared
The major floral regions and the major faunal regions are
roughly congruent, but there are important differences
between them. First, owing to the superior dispersal ability
of some plants compared with terrestrial mammals, the
floral regions tend to be less sharply defined than do the
faunal regions. Second, although the boreal floral region is
equivalent to the combined Palaearctic and Nearctic
faunal regions (the Holarctic region), the North American
floral subregion differs from the Nearctic faunal region in
that it does not occupy all of Florida or Baja California.
The Palaeotropical floral region is equivalent to the
combined Ethiopian and Oriental faunal regions or a large
part of Smith’s Afro-Tethyan region, excluding the
Mediterranean, which is floristically grouped with the
Boreal region. The Australian floral region approximately
corresponds with the Australian faunal region, though the
dividing line with the Asian region lies between Australia
and New Guinea, rather than farther west as in the case of
animals. Indeed, it is puzzling that the flora of New Guinea
is Palaeotropical while its fauna is Australian. The
Island
Neotropical floral region broadly matches the Neotropical
faunal region, but the floral Neotropical region, unlike the

faunal Neotropical region, takes in Baja California and the
southern end of Florida. The Cape floral region, which
occupies the southern tip of Africa, bears no equivalent
faunal region. The Antarctic floral region, which, like the
Cape floral region, possesses no faunal counterpart,
includes southern South America and New Zealand, and
some of its members are found in Tasmania and south-
eastern Australia.
Transitional Zones and Filters
The chief faunal and floral regions are separated from one
another by various kinds of barriers determined mainly by
climate, mountains and water gaps. The Nearctic is
separated from the Palaearctic by two water gaps – the
Bering Strait and the Norwegian Sea, both of which
experience cold climates. A narrow land-link (the Isthmus
of Panama), which replaced an earlier water gap, separates
the Nearctic region from the Neotropical region, with arid
conditions lying north of the land link in Mexico. The
Sahara Desert divides the Palaearctic region from the
Ethiopian region. The Ethiopian region is insulated from
the Oriental region by arid lands in southwest Asia and the
Arabian peninsula. The Himalayas and their eastward
extensions create a formidable barrier between the Oriental
region and the Palaearctic region. In the region sometimes
called Wallacea, a series of water gaps hinders movement
between the Oriental region and the Australian region.
The borders between biogeographical regions may be
crossed with varying levels of ease or difficulty. Seldom do
the environmental conditions in the border areas allow
unhampered access between regions. A fairly open border
once existed between Alaska and Siberia when, during the
Pleistocene epoch, there was a dry-land connection across
what is now the Bering Strait. Other borders tend to act as
filters and prevent the passage of some species from one
biogeographical region to another. In many cases, the
border area is transitional as the fauna or flora of one
biogeographical region intermixes with the fauna or flora
of an adjacent biogeographical region. Two cases will
illustrate these points.
Wallacea
The famous zoogeographical transition zone between
Lydekker’s line and Wallace’s line is sometimes called
Wallacea (Figure 4). It is a large area in which Oriental and
the Australian faunas grade into one another. The faunas
of both these regions thin out across the transition zone.
Wallace’s line, which passes between Bali and Lombok and
along the Makassar Strait between Borneo and Sulawesi,
marks the easternmost extension of a wholly Oriental
fauna. A few Oriental species (shrews, civets, pigs, deer and
monkeys) have colonized Sulawesi and Bali, but they are
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Biogeographical Regions
Huxley’s modification
of Wallace’s line
20°N
South Luzon Pacific
China Sea Ocean
10°N
Wallace’s line
Weber’s line
Wallacea
Borneo Lydekker’s
0°
Sumatra Celebes
line
New
Guinea
Indian Ocean Java
10°S
100°E 120°E 140°E
Figure 4 Wallacea – the transition zone between the Oriental and
Australian faunal regions.
genetically distinct from their relatives in the Oriental
region. A very few Oriental species, all of which might have
been introduced, occur on the islands as far east as Timor,
but no Oriental species live beyond that point. Lydekker’s
line, which passes between the Australian mainland and
Timor and between New Guinea and Seram and Halma-
hera, follows the edge of Australia’s continental shelf (the
Sahul Shelf). It marks the westernmost limit of a wholly
Australian fauna. A few Australian species are found on
some small islands a little to the west, and as far west as
Sulawesi and Lombok. Weber’s line (Figure 4) runs west of
the Moluccas and east of Timor, and marks places with an
equal mix of Oriental and Australian species. It is taken by
some authorities as the dividing line between the Oriental
and Australian faunas. However, the search for a hard-
and-fast dividing line in such a patently transitional region
seems pointless.
The Isthmus of Panama
South America is presently connected to North America,
but for most of the last 65 million years or so it was an
island-continent. Once during that time, from about 40 to
36 million years ago, a land connection with North
America, probably through a chain of islands, existed.
Two groups of mammal – primates and ancestors of the
caviomorph rodents – took advantage of the connection
and invaded South America. Having arrived in South
America, both groups underwent an impressive adaptive
radiation to produce the great variety of rodents and New
World monkeys found in South America today. From 30
million to 6 million years ago, South America remained a
colossal island and mammals had no possibility of
interaction with other faunal regions. Even as recently as
5
 Biogeographical Regions
6 million years ago, the Bolivar Trough connected the
Caribbean Sea with the Pacific Ocean and deterred the
passage of animals. However, at that time, members of two
families of mammals – the ‘field mice’ (Cricetidae) and
racoons, cacomistles, coati-mundis, kinkajous and olingos
(Procyonidae) – rafted across the seaway on clumps of soil
and vegetation. By 3 million years ago, a land connection –
the Panamanian land bridge – had developed that supplied
a gateway for faunal interchange between North and South
America. A flood of mammals simply walked into South
America. Members of many families were involved:
Cervidae (deer), camels (Camelidae), peccaries (Tayassui-
dae), tapirs (Tapiridae), horses (Equidae), mastodons
(Gomphotheriidae), rabbits (Leporidae), squirrels (Sciur-
idae), shrews (Soricidae), mice (Muridae), dogs (Canidae),
bears (Ursidae), weasels (Mustelidae) and cats (Felidae).
The passage was two-way and is known as the Great
American Interchange.
The Applied Use of Biogeographical
Regions: Their Place in Conservation
Each biogeographical region contains a combination
of species, genera and families, many of which are
endemic. Each has a distinctive character that, without
conservation measures, stands to be greatly diminished or
even lost. Natural biogeographical regions are threatened
by human activities, and in particular by habitat destruc-
tion and fragmentation and by the introduction of alien
species.
Habitat destruction and fragmentation
The human species has transformed the globe to such an
extent that only fragments, admittedly some large, of
original fauna and flora remain in most biogeographical
regions. Natural habitats are conserved in wildlife reserves,
where efforts are made to preserve the indigenous faunas
and floras. Threatened species and communities stand an
even better chance of survival if the wildlife reserves are
linked by corridors. By the mid-1980s, 13 western North
American wildlife parks had lost 43% of their historical
lagomorph (rabbits, hares and pikas), carnivore and
ungulate species. But the Kootenay–Banff–Jasper–Yoho
park system, which embodied significant connections
between wildlife reserves, maintained all its original
mammal fauna.
The old idea that species could be preserved in zoos is no
longer seen as a workable option. Zoos have their place in
conservation, for example enabling the reintroduction of
near-extinct species to the wild, but much conservation
effort now goes into protecting species in the surviving
fragments of natural habitats. There is also a growing
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realization that entire communities need conserving, and
not only ‘fashionable’ species like the tiger and orang-utan.
Human introductions
Humans are watering down the distinctiveness of biogeo-
graphical regions by the introduction of alien species: they
are homogenizing the global fauna and flora. Take the case
of New Zealand. Fifty-four mammal species have been
introduced to the island. Twenty came directly or indirectly
from Britain and Europe, 14 from Australia, 10 from the
Americas, six from Asia, two from Polynesia and two from
Africa. The package contained domestic animals for
farming and household pets and feral animals for sport
or fur production. Farm animals included sheep, cattle and
horses. Domestic animals included cats and dogs. Sporting
animals included pheasant, deer, wallabies and rabbits.
The Australian possum was introduced to start a fur
industry. Wild boars and goats were liberated on New
Zealand by Captain James Cook. Many other species were
introduced – European blackbirds, thrushes, sparrows,
rooks, yellow hammers, chaffinches, budgerigars, hedge-
hogs, hares, weasels, stoats, ferrets, rats and mice. Of
course, natural invasions of alien species do take place, but
not, it would seem, at the human-induced rates prevalent
over the last couple of centuries.
Introduced species commonly have an adverse effect
upon native species. The Indian mongoose (Herpestes
auropunctatus), introduced to various islands worldwide in
the hope of controlling rats and other vertebrate pests, has
led to the extinction of several native bird and reptile
populations. Cats and rats introduced to islands have also
tended to have an inimical effect on native wildlife. The
inadvertent introduction of the sac fungus, Cryphonectria
(Endothia) parasitica, into the United States around 1900
led within 50 years to the near elimination of the American
chestnut (Castanea dentata) from the native eastern
hardwood forests.
Summary
The world’s terrestrial animals and plants are grouped into
faunal and floral regions. Six faunal regions are recognized
traditionally, though a modern scheme, constructed using
a numerical classification technique, identifies four regions
and 10 subregions. Six floral regions and 37 floral regions
are commonly distinguished. The floral and faunal regions
bear broad agreement with one another but display
important differences of detail. The natural faunas and
floras of biogeographical regions are unique. They are
under a severe threat from habitat destruction, habitat
fragmentation, and the introduction of new species by
humans. Their long-term survival depends upon local and
regional conservation schemes.

Further Reading
Böhning-Gaese K, González-Guzmán LI and Brown JH (1998)
Constraints on dispersal and evolution of the avifauna of the Northern
Hemisphere. Evolutionary Ecology 12: 767–783.
Brown JH and Lomolino MV (1998) Biogeography, 2nd edn. Sunder-
land, MA: Sinauer Associates.
Cox CB and Moore PD (1993) Biogeography: An Ecological and
Evolutionary Approach, 5th edn. Oxford: Blackwell.
Feldhamer GA, Drickamer LC, Vessey SH and Merritt JF (1999)
Mammalogy. Adaptation, Diversity, and Ecology. Boston, MA: WCB
McGraw-Hill.
Good R (1974) The Geography of the Flowering Plants, 4th edn. London:
Longman.
Huggett RJ (1998) Fundamentals of Biogeography. London: Routledge.
Michaux B (1994) Land movements and animal distributions in east
Wallacea (eastern Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Melanesia).
Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 112: 323–343.
Newmark WD (1987) A land-bridge island perspective on mammalian
extinctions in western North American parks. Nature 325: 430–432.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LIFE SCIENCES / & 2002 Macmillan Publishers Ltd, Nature Publishing Group / www.els.net
Biogeographical Regions
Sclater PL (1858) On the general distribution of the members of the
class Aves. The Journal of the Linnean Society of London: Zoology 2:
130–145.
Smith CH (1983) A system of world mammal faunal regions. I. Logical
and statistical derivation of the regions. Journal of Biogeography 10:
455–466.
Smith CH (1983) A system of world mammal faunal regions. II. The
distance decay effect upon inter-regional affinities. Journal of
Biogeography 10: 467–482.
Vane-Wright RI (1991) Transcending the Wallace Line: do the western
edges of the Australian region and the Australian plate coincide?
Australian Systematic Botany 4: 183–197.
Wallace AR (1876) The Geographical Distribution of Animals; with
a Study of the Relations of Living and Extinct Faunas as Elucidating
the Past Changes of the Earth’s Surface, 2 vols. London:
Macmillan.
Wilson DE and Reeder DM (1993) Mammal Species of the World: A
Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, 2nd edn. Washington and
London: Smithsonian Institution Press in association with the
American Society of Mammalogists.
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