Tag: Biodiversity loss

IUCN Red List 2024: Pygmy Elephant from Borneo (Elephas_maximus_borneensis)
Over the past 75 years, the number of dwarf elephants living in Borneo has dramatically declined. The lowland forests they inhabit are being extensively logged, leading to the elephants now being classified as endangered. (© Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons))

IUCN Red List 2024: One Thousand Additional Animal and Plant Species Threatened with Extinction

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has released its latest Red List of Threatened Species. In its 60th year, the list, which now includes more than 163,040 species, warns of a concerning rise in the number of animals and plants threatened with extinction. Over 45,000 species are now

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Animals declared extinct in 2023: Epioblasma torulosa
Two subspecies of the freshwater mussel Epioblasma torulosa were delisted from the Endangered Species Act by the FWS and officially declared extinct in 2023. (© Naturalis Biodiversity Center, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Animals declared extinct in 2023

In 2023, scientists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) officially declared 21 species, including ten birds, eight mussels, two fish, and one mammal, to be extinct. Additionally, the international conservation organization IUCN changed the status of the Java stingaree (Urolophus javanicus) on its Red List to “extinct.” This

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Birds lost to science: White-breasted Zosterops (Zosterops albogularis)
The white-chested white-eye is also on the list of lost bird species. It was native to Norfolk Island and the last sighting of a specimen was in 2005. (© Rawpixel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

New Analysis: 126 Birds Lost to Science – no Confirmed Sighting in at Least a Decade

As part of the project The Search for Lost Birds, a collaboration between Re:wild, the American Bird Conservancy, and BirdLife International, the most comprehensive listing of bird species considered lost to science has been created. A newly published study in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment reveals that

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Polar Bears could go extinct by the 2030s
A warming of more than two degrees above pre-industrial levels threatens the southern and western polar bear populations of Hudson Bay with local extinction. (© Arturo de Frias Marques, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Global warming: Polar bears could become extinct as early as the 2030s

The future of polar bears in Hudson Bay, Canada, looks bleak: a new study warns that polar bears could become regionally extinct as early as the 2030s if global warming continues to rise and surpass critical thresholds. Researchers from several North American and international institutions caution that a global temperature

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