There has been some very interesting news lately concerning the world’s mammals. First the good news. There now seems to be a consensus on the number of mammals that inhabits the earth. Over the years it has been generally accepted that there were somewhere around 4,500 mammals walking the face of the earth. A couple weeks ago a new number was released and it seems the agreed number is now 5,487. It amazes me that we are still finding new mammal species on this planet ever since scientist started counting mammals back in the 1500’s. It just goes to show how large and complex our world is.
So that was the good news–more mammal species than we had thought. Now for the bad news. According to a new international survey, about one in four mammals alive today are threatened with extinction. The world’s most comprehensive study of mammals has just concluded and the results are being released. The study was put together by the Geneva-based International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). It was conducted by over 1,700 scientists in 130 nations over a five year period of time and their findings are sobering. One quarter of all the wild mammal species in the world is at risk for extinction.
Since we started cataloging mammals nearly 500 years ago, 76 mammal species have become extinct. But what is more alarming is the data is showing that the rate of extinction is increasing in the most recent history. The reasons behind the increased rate of extinction according to the IUCN are increased habitat loss through human activities such as logging and agriculture. Combine that with overhunting, poaching, overfishing, water pollution and increase human population and we have a rapid increase in the rate in which the world’s mammal species are dropping. For example, more species have been wiped out in the past 35 years than in the previous 300.
Combine these known problems with the unknown effects of global climate change and we don’t know if we will loose more mammal species or help the mammalian plight. Only time will tell on this one.
The data shows that the larger mammals of the world are most vulnerable. In particular the primates of Asia with nearly 80 percent of them facing extinction. In Australia, the Tasmanian Devil and the Asian Caspian Seal are facing extinction. Polar bears are another large mammal that is facing a very uncertain future.
There is some good news in this story. Some mammals such as the Black-footed Ferret, here in North America, that were once thought to be extinct and now are being reintroduced to the wild and its numbers are increasing. I was fortunate enough to spend about a week with the team that is working on reintroducing the ferret back to South Dakota. It was exciting to see the ferrets in the wild, knowing how close they came to going the way of the Passenger Pigeon and other birds and animals that have gone extince.
Hopefully we can learn from our actions in the past and pave a sustainable way into the future that has room for all the critters that call planet earth home. Until next time…