From 5th to 9th August 2024, Sankar attended the 10th World Congress of Herpetology, held in Kuching, Sarawak. This is a meeting of global herpetologists held every four years. Sankar presented a poster on his work tracking squamate (lizard and snake) extirpations in Singapore using the SEUX and MODGEE models developed in our lab.

The SEUX model takes in the first and last years of detection for the species in a group and estimates the rates of known extinctions and dark extinctions (i.e., extinction prior to discovery) that occur within that group. The MODGEE model takes advantage of the entire detection time series and can additionally estimate the extinction probability of individual species and the time of extirpation. A recent comprehensive compilation of herpetofaunal records in Singapore has made it possible to use MODGEE to obtain these estimates for squamates (snakes and lizards). The resulting assessments of which species are extinct can be valuable in planning species reintroductions in the future.

The conference was well attended (~1500 delegates) and there were many opportunities to engage and network with other herpetologists from around the world working on conservation translocations, capture-mark-recapture monitoring and population viability analysis.

At the end of the conference, Sankar was awarded the best poster in the multi-taxa category. Congratulations, Sankar!