Conservancy says lemurs, whales near extinction
GENEVA — Nearly all of Madagascar’s muchloved lemurs are under threat, and almost onethird are just one step away from extinction, largely due to deforestation and hunting on the giant island off eastern Africa, conservationists said Thursday.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature, updating its “red list” of threatened species, said the lemurs are increasingly imperiled — a key finding in a broad warning about the impacts of human activity on fauna and flora across the globe.
The Swiss also warns that North Atlantic Right Whales are nearing extinction: Not only are they increasingly ensnared in fishing gear but they’re colliding more with ships, possibly a result of climate change that drives their migratory patterns northward into shipping lanes.
The “red list” highlights the plight of some 6,000 species that are in the most danger, but also notes that of the 120,000 species of plants, animals and fungi assessed, more than a quarter are threatened with extinction.
“It just helps underline the fact that we are moving into a sixth extinction era. It is all due to human activities,” Craig HiltonTaylor, the head of the IUCN red list, said in a video interview from Cambridge, England. He cited human impacts like the introduction of species to places where they don’t belong; the overuse of species; clearing of forests to make way for agriculture; urbanization; pollution; “and, of course, climate change.”
The red list breaks down threatened species into vulnerable, endangered and critically endangered categories, the last involving those closest to extinction. Some 33 of the species of lemurs, which live only in Madagascar, are critically endangered — and 98% are threatened.
“We now have less than 10% of the original forest in Madagascar left,” HiltonTaylor said, alluding to “slash and burn” agriculture there.