One in Four Mammals at Risk of Extinction
A comprehensive, international survey released today, showed that half of all 5,487 mammal populations are declining.
Just today, data from a global survey was revealed at a meeting of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Barcelona, Spain. 1,700 researchers took part in the survey and named habitat loss and hunting as the major causes of the current, mass extinction.
Jan Schipper, who led the team, said: “Mammals are declining faster than we thought — one in four species is threatened with extinction worldwide.”
He said that land animals in Asia have been the hardest hit, where almost 80% of the primates are at risk. Other mammals at risk across the globe include the blue whale, the bumblebee bat, the Caspian seal and the Tasmanian Devil.
Scientists currently have data for 4,651 species of mammals. According to this study, 1,139 of these species face the threat of extinction.
