Ben Cubby; 7/10/08
The world is facing an animal exctinction crisis, with Australia a key culprit, the largest assessment of biodiversity ever undertaken shows. One in five Australian mammal species is in danger of dying out, the highest proportion of any developed country, the global survey of more than 44,000 animal and plant species found. The iconic Murray cod, once hauled from the Murray in the tens of thousands, is regarded by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as critically endangered, alongside even rarer animals such as the Sumatran orang-utan and Africa’s mountain gorilla. The destruction of wild forests and rivers by urban development and agriculture is the biggest cause of extinctions, the conservation union’s annual report said.
All ours . . . and they’re almost gone
Leigh Dayton; 7/10/08; Science writer; The Australian, No Internet Text
Australia has the worst record of mammal extinctions and near extinctions of any developed nation in the world. It shares sixth place with Jamaica and Puerto Rico for presiding over the real or likely demise of 6 per cent of all known mammal species on earth. The damaging assessment comes from a survey of the world’s 5487 species of land and marine mammals released last night by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature at its world congress in Barcelona.
The IUCN’s Red List of Threatened Species reveals that no other developed nation rates a mention on the extinction league table until 20th place, where Italy, France, the US and Japan join nine other nations cited for overseeing the loss of less than 1 per cent of all mammal species.
Chris West, chief executive of Zoos South Australia and an expert in biodiversity at Flinders and Adelaide universities, said: “The solemn news is that we’re still up there in terms of endangered mammals.” Professor West was disappointed that Australia had not moved down from sixth place since the last IUCN Red List was released in 2004.
Since then, the blue-grey mouse had become extinct and Professor West said three other small native mammals now classed as critically endangered might be extinct.
The Tasmanian devil was not on the 2004 Red List but it is now listed as vulnerable — one step below critically endangered — due to a population decline of 60 per cent in 10 years caused by a fatal transmittable facial tumour. “I think of them all as our near dodos,” Professor West said.Environment Minister Peter Garrett
acknowledged the risk to native species and said the Government intended to tackle the problem through several mechanisms, including its new $2.25 billion Caring for our Country initiative and expansion of the National Reserve system. The worst national offender is Haiti (18 per cent), followed by the Dominican Republic (16 per cent), Cuba and Mauritius (9 per cent each) and Reunion (7 per cent).
The new IUCN Red List was compiled by more than 1700 experts in 130 countries.
The overall survey finding — to be detailed later this week in the journal Science — was that one in four of the world’s land mammal species and one in three marine mammal species faced extinction.
Primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall, currently touring Australia, said: “It’s a tragedy that the list is still growing.” She said that among the animal groups at most risk were humanity’s primate cousins:
chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas and monkeys. Species of whales, dolphins, manatees and dugongs also faced extinction.The IUCN report found that the primary dangers to land mammals were habitat loss and over-hunting, while in the oceans, pollution and indirect effects of fishing did most harm.
Report: Mammals facing bleak future
6/10/08
Half of the world’s mammals are declining in population and more than a third probably face extinction, according to a report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). A survey of mammals included in the organisation’s Red List, the most respected inventory of biodiversity, indicates that a quarter of the planet’s 5,487 known mammals are clearly at risk of disappearing forever.
See: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2008/10/ 2008106123642866907.html
Tags: Australia, Environment, Global