Threatened Species

September 13, 2007 9:10 PM

The 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
posted by homunculus (7 comments total)

Today's mass extinction is called the Holocene extinction event.
"70% of biologists view the present era as part of a mass extinction event, possibly one of the fastest ever, according to a 1998 survey by the American Museum of Natural History. Some, such as E. O. Wilson of Harvard University, predict that man's destruction of the biosphere could cause the extinction of one-half of all species in the next 100 years."
posted by McLir at 9:59 PM on September 13, 2007

I see the Kakapo is still hanging in there. If a flightless, heavy parrot that deals with threats by standing still and only breeds every 2 to 5 years can survive, there's hope for others.
posted by tellurian at 10:02 PM on September 13, 2007

* quickly scans the list for Homo sapiens *

Damn.
posted by Jimbob at 11:03 PM on September 13, 2007

We haven't had a die-off like this since, what -- the Cretaceous?

And boy, when those people say red, they mean it, don't they?
posted by Devils Rancher at 1:48 PM on September 14, 2007

We haven't even documented a lot of the invertebrate species yet (and I mean existence and basic data, not just list status), so the situation's even more alarming than the list suggests.

Species that changed status in 2007 [pdf].

Photo gallery from IUCN. More photos at ARKive (2006 IUCN status).
posted by Tehanu at 2:12 PM on September 14, 2007

I was just checking to see if someone had posted this. Thanks.

From ENS: One in every four mammal species, one in every eight bird species, one third of all amphibians and 70 percent of the world's assessed plants on the 2007 IUCN Red List are in danger of extinction.

I'm bummed about the gorillas myself. More as an indicator -- if "humanity as a whole" [quote marks because I know that's really naive] can't get it together to do something about protecting the gorillas, everything less like us is really screwed. On the other hand, we also can't get it together to be nice to other humans (which is partially why the gorillas are doing so bad, since poverty, etc, is why the bushmeat trade thrives.)

A reassessment of humanity's closest relatives, the great apes, has revealed a grim picture, the IUCN says. The Western Gorilla has moved from Endangered to Critically Endangered, after the discovery that the main subspecies, the Western Lowland Gorilla has been undercut by the commercial bushmeat trade and the Ebola virus. Their population has been reduced by more than 60 percent over the last 20 to 25 years...
posted by salvia at 10:49 AM on September 15, 2007

Global Warming is a Hoax? What puzzles me is, how much more evidence do people 'in the other camp' need? And what interest do they have in denying the inescapable reality?
posted by lamarguerite at 8:57 AM on October 1, 2007