Red alert as 25% of mammal species in danger of dying out

FROM the enormous African elephant to the tiny elephant-shrew, thousands of animals face extinction unless urgent action is taken, according to the biggest survey ever carried out into the world's mammals.

At least one in four species could disappear forever, in an "extinction crisis". A five-year study by more than 1,000 scientists has shown that half of all mammal species are in decline because of habitat loss and hunting, with 1,141 out of 5,487 at risk of extinction.

Despite conservation efforts, the African elephant is still at risk, after suffering a decline of about 25 per cent over the past three decades. The less well-known grey-faced sengi, a type of elephant-shrew, is in even more danger. It lives in just two forests in Tanzania, both of which are vulnerable to fires.

The vast array of other animals at risk includes rhinos, gibbons, species of mice and flying foxes.

The information has been used to form a new "Red List" of endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

There are 188 mammals in the Red List's highest threat category of "critically endangered" and 29 of these may already be extinct, such as the baiji or Yangtze dolphin in China.

Another 450 mammals are classed as endangered, including the Tasmanian devil, the fishing cat and the Caspian seal.

The lead scientist behind the study, Jan Schipper, told The Scotsman:

"It is serious to the point where if we don't do something in the very near future, we are going to see a wave of extinctions.

"There are so many species teetering on the brink. It should be a societal priority to have a zero-extinction policy and it's unacceptable to say that half of mammals are declining without doing something about it."

About 80 mammals have become extinct since 1500, but it is predicted hundreds more might disappear in just the next few decades.



Julia Marton-Lefèvre, the IUCN director-general, said: "Within our lifetime, hundreds of species could be lost as a result of our own actions – a frightening sign of what is happening to the ecosystems where they live.

"We must set clear targets to reverse this trend, to ensure that our enduring legacy is not to wipe out many of our closest relatives."

Professor Andrew Smith, of Arizona State University, who played a key role in the assessment, thinks the trade in endangered species must be further curtailed and that there must be a stop to needless habitat loss.

He added: "It is frightening that, after millions and millions of years of evolution that have given rise to the biodiversity of mammals, we are perched on a crisis where 25 per cent of species are threatened with being lost forever."

He warned that mammals play a pivotal role in eco- systems and provide important benefits to humans. "If you lose a mammal, you often are in danger of losing many other species," he said.

The true situation might be even worse than predicted by the study, as 836 mammals are listed as "data deficient". Mr Schipper said: "The number of threatened mammals could be as high as 36 per cent."

According to scientists, habitat-loss affects 40 per cent of the world's mammals and is most extreme in central and south America, much of Africa, and in south and south-east Asia.

However, conservation can bring species back from the brink of extinction, with 5 per cent of currently threatened mammals showing signs of recovery in the wild.

Dr Jane Smart, head of the IUCN's species programme, said: "The longer we wait, the more expensive it will be to prevent future extinctions. We now know what species are threatened, what the threats are and where. We have no more excuses to watch from the sidelines."

The project involved 1,800 scientists from more than 130 countries. The IUCN Red List, which assesses more than just mammals, now includes 44,838 species, of which 33 per cent, or 16,928, are threatened with extinction.

A year ago, it comprised 41,415 species, of which 16,306 were rated as threatened.

Amphibians are among the species that are most vulnerable, with almost a third now threatened or extinct.

A new initiative by the IUCN this year has tried to provide a broader picture of biodiversity as a whole, rather than simply focusing on key types of species, such as mammals.

A Sampled Red List Index (SRLI) has been formed, which takes a random sample of species and calculates the trends in extinction risk within that group.

It works in a similar way as an exit poll from a polling station can be used to calculate voting trends. The index makes it possible to track in detail the fate of species.



In the past, the Red List has focused mainly on better-known groups such as birds and mammals, and the conservation status of less than 4 per cent of the world's biodiversity has been known.

Dr Jonathan Baillie, director of Conservation Programmes at the Zoological Society of London, involved in forming the SRLI, said: "We are now emerging from the dark ages of conservation knowledge, when we relied on data from a highly restricted subset of species.

"In the future, we will expand the scope of our species knowledge to include a far broader range of groups, thus informing and assisting policymakers in a hugely more objective and representative manner."