This Book is Cruelty-Free by Linda Newbery

Author:Linda Newbery
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

Conservation Status: The Red List

If you visit a zoo, you may notice that animals’ conservation status is shown on an information board: for instance ‘Critically Endangered’ or ‘Vulnerable’. This information comes from the Red List compiled by the IUCN. They call it a ‘Barometer of Life’, as it contains the detailed, regularly updated information on 70,000 species of animals, plants and fungi from all over the world.

The aim is to assess 160,000 species, so there’s a way to go yet.

IUCN estimates that more than 31,000 species are threatened with extinction – that’s 27% of all those assessed so far, and includes 25% of mammals, 30% of sharks and rays and an even more alarming 41% of amphibians. A terrible statistic is that over half of Europe’s native trees (58%) face extinction. If these trees die out the landscape will be drastically changed, with serious implications for wildlife – so many mammals, birds and insects depend on those trees for food and shelter.

The Red List is often talked of as if it contains only endangered species, but in fact the list goes from those not in danger at all, to those already extinct, such as the dodo.

The categories are:

• Least Concern

• Near Threatened

• Vulnerable

• Endangered

• Critically Endangered

• Extinct in the Wild

• Extinct

There are two more categories too: Data Deficient (i.e. not enough is known yet) and Not Evaluated. Of course, those species not yet evaluated may also be at risk, and then there are species we haven’t yet discovered, for instance in rainforests and in the deepest parts of the oceans. In 2020 a team of scientists found 20 previously unknown species (plants and animals including a tiny frog, a viper and butterflies) in a remote area of rainforest in Bolivia, South America. Although these finds are exciting, it should make us wonder how many creatures become extinct before we even know they exist – especially in rainforests, which are being destroyed at an alarming rate.

The Red List is the best source of information about numbers, geographical range and the precise nature of threats to animals, and a fascinating database to learn from. I’ll say more about it in the section about encountering wildlife as the list isn’t only about exotic animals, but might give information about animals native to where you live, too.

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