How Many Animals Do Zoos Save Each Year
Upwardly to 48 bird and mammal extinctions have been prevented by conservation efforts since a global agreement to protect biodiversity, according to a new study.
The Iberian lynx, California condor and pygmy hog are amid animals that would accept disappeared without reintroduction programmes, zoo-based conservation and formal legal protections since 1993, inquiry led by scientists at Newcastle University and BirdLife International plant.
The report, published in the periodical Conservation Letters, estimates that extinction rates for birds and mammals would take been three to four times higher over that period, which was called considering 1993 is when the UN Convention on Biological Variety came into force.
Since then, 15 bird and mammal species accept become extinct or are strongly suspected to have disappeared. Just researchers say that between 28 and 48 bird and mammal species were saved.
They include the Puerto Rican amazon, a small parrot that had dwindled to merely xiii wild individuals in 1975, and was saved from extinction by a reintroduction program in a state park on the Caribbean isle. The original group was wiped out by hurricanes in 2017.
In Mongolia, around 760 Przewalski's horses roam the steppes once once again, despite having go extinct in the wild in 1960. Reintroduction efforts in the early 90s hateful there is now a self-sustaining wild population of the animals.
Dr Stuart Butchart, main scientist at BirdLife International and instigator of the study, said the findings showed that commitments to foreclose future species loss were "achievable and essential to sustain a healthy planet" and gave hope to conservation efforts for other species.
Using data on population size, trends, threats and conservation efforts from 137 global experts, researchers filtered a longlist of 17,046 bird and mammal species to place a shortlist of 81 that were listed as threatened on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'south red listing. The details were then used to calculate the likelihood that each species would have get extinct without conservation measures.
Researchers plant betwixt 21 and 32 bird extinctions had been prevented and that between seven and sixteen mammals had been saved. The ranges reflect uncertainty about the estimates.
Birds analysed in the written report benefited from invasive species control, zoo conservation and habitat protection, while mammals were helped by legislation, introduction schemes and zoo collections.
Despite the hopeful findings for conservationists, some species in the written report experienced declines, such as the critically endangered vaquita, a porpoise found in the Gulf of California that is threatened past illegal fishing.
Dr Rike Bolam from Newcastle University, co-lead author of the report, said: "It is encouraging that some of the species have recovered very well. Our analyses provide a strikingly positive message that conservation has substantially reduced extinction rates for birds and mammals."
The findings come every bit a report out today from the World Wide Fund for Nature warns that creature populations have plunged on average by 68% since 1970, simply acknowledges that conservation efforts can work.
The UN'due south fifth Global Biodiversity Outlook written report next week will evidence whether governments have met conservation targets agreed in 2010, including a goal to prevent extinctions of species known to be threatened.
While the United nations report is widely expected to testify that the targets take not been met, the BirdLife report authors said their findings showed that governments should exist encouraged to reaffirm their commitment to halting extinctions in the agreement for this decade, which has been called "the Paris agreement for nature".
Newcastle University professor Phil McGowan, who co-led the written report and heads an IUCN Species Survival Commission taskforce, said the findings were "a glimmer of hope" but that continuing extinctions should non be forgotten.
"We usually hear bad stories about the biodiversity crisis and there is no dubiety that we are facing an unprecedented loss in biodiversity through act. The loss of entire species tin can exist stopped if in that location is sufficient volition to exercise so. This is a call to activeness: showing the calibration of the issue and what we tin can achieve if we act now to support conservation and prevent extinction," he said.
Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for all the latest news and features
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/10/up-to-48-species-saved-from-extinction-by-conservation-efforts-study-finds-aoe
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