15,589 Species Threatened

(Via The Scientist) The 2004 Global Species Assessment (217 page PDF) released yesterday at the Third IUCN World Conservation Congress says that since 2000 3300 new species have been added to the world's endangered species list.

More than 15,000 species around the world are at risk of extinction, according to a report released today (November 17) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN). The organization, whose annual list of endangered species is commonly known as the "Red List," found that one in eight birds, almost half of turtles and tortoises, one in four mammals studied, and one in three amphibians is threatened. ... One major notable shift is that continental extinctions have become as common as extinctions on islands, typically thought of as more ecologically fragile. The report concluded that the current extinction rate is 100 to a 1000 times the "natural" evolutionary rate.

Posted by Tom on November 18, 2004