When it comes to conservation, ditch the ‘canary in the coal mine’

With habitat loss threatening the extinction of an ever-growing number of species around the world, many wildlife advocates and conservation professionals rely on the proverbial ‘canary in the coal mine’ — monitoring and protecting a single representative species — to maintain healthy wildlife biodiversity. But new research from UBC’s Okanagan campus suggests that habitats are better served if conservation efforts focus on a collection of species rather than a single ‘canary.’