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Conservation of Mollusca

Research Scientist: Dr Winston Ponder

There are more extinctions recorded for molluscs than for any other animal group. This is of great concern, especially because the documentation of these extinctions is only well known for a very small number of countries - what we know about is only the tip of the iceberg.
Many Australian non-marine molluscs are identified as vulnerable or endangered but, at present, these are not considered in most conservation management strategies. While this matter is being addressed slowly through collaboration with the other members of the IUCN Mollusc Specialist Group, the Malacological Society of Australasia and other specialists in Australia progress is slow because of a serious lack of resources and people to provide information.

A list of threatened and extinct non-marine taxa has been provided to IUCN and has been published in the 1996 edition of the "Red List" (1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals). Updates of this list are made every few years. A searchable database of the current list is available on their website.

• Mollusc Specialist Group of IUCN
• Endangered Snails Page
• Other 99%
• Conservation of Australian Marine Invertebrates

Publications from this project

1. Ponder, W.F. (1992) Bias and biodiversity. Australian Zoologist, 28:47-51.
2. Ponder, W.F. (1994) Australian freshwater Mollusca: Conservation priorities and indicator species. Records of the Queensland Museum, 36: 191-196.
3. Ponder, W.F. (1995) Hydrobiid snails of the South Australian mound springs. The Case for Conservation. In: The conservation biology of molluscs. Kay, E.A. (ed), IUCN, Gland Switzerland. pp. 13-18.
4. Ponder, W.F. (1995) The conservation of non-marine molluscs in perspective. Biodiversity and conservation of the Mollusca. Backhuys Publishers, Oegstgeest-Leiden. pp. 55-67.
5. Ponder, W. F. (1997). Freshwater molluscs of northeast Tasmania. Records of the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery 103:185-191.
6. Ponder, W. F. 1997. Conservation status, threats and habitat requirements of Australian terrestrial and freshwater Mollusca. Memoirs of the Museum of Victoria 56(2): 421-430.
7. Ponder, W.F. (1998). Conservation. In Beesley, P.L., Ross, G.J.B. and Wells, A. (eds) 1998. Mollusca: The Southern Synthesis. Vol. 5. CSIRO Publishing: Melbourne. Pp. 105-115.
8. Ponder, W.F. & Lunney, D. (eds) (1999). The Other 99%. The conservation and biodiversity of invertebrates. Ed. W.F. Ponder and D. Lunney. Transactions of the Royal Zoological Society of NSW, Mosman. 454 pp.
9. Hutchings, P. A. & Ponder, W.F. (1999). Workshop: criteria for assessing and conserving threatened invertebrates. In The Other 99%. The conservation and biodiversity of invertebrates. Ed. W.F. Ponder and D. Lunney. Transactions of the Royal Zoological Society of NSW, Mosman. Pp. 264-315.

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