IUCN SSC
Our website serves as an information hub for researchers, conservation professionals and keen naturalists who are interested in the world’s rodents, shrews, moles, solenodons, hedgehogs and tree-shrews.
Latest: Santa Catarina’s Guinea Pig: the rarest rodent in the world?
Santa Catarina’s Guinea Pig (Cavia intermedia) has the smallest geographical distribution of any known mammal. Dr Carlos Henrique Salvador is the Small Mammal Specialist Group’s Key Species Champion for Santa Catarina’s Guinea Pig. Carlos is today working on monitoring the current population using a network of trail and security cameras, which were kindly funded by a Greensboro Science Center (GSC) grant.
Latest: How gold mining is threatening Chile’s endangered chinchillas
Mining has become a substantial threat to chinchillas. Multiple colonies in Chile are known to be living on top of huge quantities of extractable gold. Amy Deane, who is a member of the Small Mammal Specialist Group and founder of Save The Wild Chinchillas, stresses that gold mines pose a grave threat.
Latest: SMSG research wins a silver BIAZA award
This year, the SMSG received a silver BIAZA award for research exploring global hotspots of, and research priorities for, the world’s Rodentia and Eulipotyphla. The project titled “Scaling up small-mammal conservation: setting global priorities for understudied and overlooked species”, was led by the SMSG with partners at Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, Texas A&M University, the Zoological Society of London and Re:wild.
Latest: The Malagasy Giant Jumping Rat is uplisted to Critically Endangered
The The Malagasy Giant Jumping Rat – endemic to Madagascar – has been under pressure from habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation for years. Now, in a recent IUCN Red List update, this species has been moved to a higher threat category, from Endangered to Critically Endangered.
