IUCN Red List reveals over 28,000 species at risk of extinction

Overfishing, hunting and habitat destruction are the key causes of population declines.

Human activity is continuing to drive many species towards extinction, according to the latest update to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Seven primate species, the rhino ray family, a deep-sea mollusc and more than 5,000 trees are among those considered most at risk.

The survey includes assessments for 105,732 species and reveals that 28,338 are threatened with extinction. Six of the seven Red Listed primates occur in West Africa, where they face hunting for bush meat and development-related deforestation. The roloway monkey is one of the worst affected, with fewer than 2,000 surviving individuals.

“Maintaining the amazing primate diversity of this region will require the creation of new protected areas, better management of existing ones, more effective enforcement of protective legislation, and economic alternatives that value primates as something more than a source of meat,” says Russ Mittermeier, chair of the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group.

More than 5,000 trees have been added to the Red List. An updated assessment of Madagascar’s dry forests reveals that 90 per cent of rosewood and palisander species are now threatened. One of the world’s most illegally trafficked wild products, they are exploited for timber.

The Red List also highlights the widespread destruction of ocean life. Intensive and unregulated fishing has seen the rhino ray family become the most imperilled marine fish in the world, with all but one of the 16 species assessed as Critically Endangered.

“Many of these ancient marine species have been around since the age of the dinosaurs and losing just one of these species would represent a loss of millions of years of evolutionary history,” says Andrew Terry, director of conservation and policy at Zoological Society of

London (ZSL).

Deep sea-bed mining for the oil and gas industries has seen the very first deep-sea hydrothermal vent mollusc to be added to the list: the scaly-foot snail, which lives at depths of 2,400m.

“With more than 100,000 species now assessed for the IUCN Red List, this update clearly shows how much humans around the world are overexploiting wildlife,” said IUCN acting director general, Dr Grethel Aguilar. “We must wake up to the fact that conserving nature’s diversity is in our interest.” Catherine Smalley

FIND OUT MORE IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: iucnredlist.org

All but one of the 16 rhino ray species is Critically Endangered.