The Evolution Lost report

One-fifth of world's back-boned animals face extinction, study warns

One species of vertebrate is added to the endangered list each week, IUCN report warns at biodiversity summit

26 October 2010 - One species is added to the endangered list every week as the risk of extinction spreads to almost one-fifth of the world's vertebrates, according to a landmark study released today.

The Evolution Lost report, published in the journal Science by more than 100 of the world's leading zoologists and botanists, found that populations of mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian and fish species had declined by an average of 30% in the past 40 years.

Multiple factors have contributed to the demise, including logging, agricultural land conversion, over-exploitation, population growth, pollution and the impact of invasive alien species.

The worst die-off has occurred in south-east Asia, where hunting, dam building and the conversion of forest to palm oil plantations and paddy fields has been most dramatic. But Australia and the Andes have also suffered significant losses.

Land mammal populations are estimated to have declined by one-quarter, marine fish by one-fifth and freshwater fish by almost two-thirds, noted the study, which analyses the states of 25,000 back-boned animals on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) "red list" of threatened species. {read rest}