100 espécies em risco de desaparecimento total
The 100 species at risk of extinction - because man has no use for them
48 countries, including Britain, urged to help prevent loss of our 'weird and wonderful' creatures
The spoon-billed sandpiper, three-toed sloth and a long-beaked
echidna named after Sir David Attenborough are among the 100 most
endangered species in the world, according to a new study.
The list of at-risk species has been published as conservationists
warn that rare mammals, plants and fungi are being sacrificed as their
habitats are appropriated for human use.
More than 8,000
scientists from the International Union for Conservation of Nature's
Species Survival Commission (IUCN SSC) helped compile the list of
species closest to extinction, which was published by the Zoological
Society of London (ZSL).
Conservationists fear the species in 48 countries, including Britain,
may die out because they don't offer obvious benefits to humans.
The
list is headed by the "weird and wonderful" spoon-billed sandpiper
which breeds in Russia and migrates to Bangladesh and Myanmar. There are
just 100 breeding pairs of the birds left in the wild with that number
declining by a quarter annually.
There are also just 500 pygmy
three-toed sloths left on the uninhabited Isla Escudo de Veraguas, 10
miles off the coast of Panama. They are half the size of sloths found on
the mainland and are the smallest and slowest sloths in the world. But
their numbers are declining with fishermen and lobster divers
"opportunistically" hunting the small animals, the report said.
Within
Britain, the brightly-coloured Willow Blister fungus which grows only
on trees in Pembrokeshire is listed as being critically at risk of
extinction due to "limited availability of habitat". The report warns
that a single "catastrophic event" could cause its total destruction.
Zaglossus
attenboroughi, or Attenborough's echidna, named after the eminent
naturalist and BBC wildlife expert, is one of just five surviving
species of monotreme, ancient egg-laying mammals found in Australia and
New Guinea 160 million years ago. Today the mammal's home is the Cyclops
Mountains of the Papua Province of Indonesia but it has been listed as
in danger due to the destruction of its habitat by loggers, agricultural
encroachment and hunting.
Professor Jonathan Baillie, the ZSL's
director of conservation, said: "The donor community and conservation
movement are leaning increasingly towards a 'what can nature do for us'
approach, where species and wild habitats are valued and prioritised
according to the services they provide for people.
"This has made
it increasingly difficult for conservationists to protect the most
threatened species on the plant. While the utilitarian value of nature
is important, conservation goes beyond this. Do these species have a
right to survive or do we have a right to drive them to extinction?"
The
ZSL's Ellen Butcher, who co-wrote the report, said: "All the species
listed are unique and irreplaceable. If we take immediate action we can
give them a fighting chance for survival. But this requires society to
support the moral and ethical position that all species have an inherent
right to exist."
Most endangered: facts and figures
Araripe manakin,
Antilophia bokermanni
Where found: Brazil
Numbers left: 779
Sumatran rhinoceros,
Dicerorhinus sumatrensis
Where found: Malaysia and Indonesia
Numbers left: 250 individuals
Pygmy three-toed sloth,
Bradypus pygmaeus
Where found: Panama
Numbers left: 500
Spoon-billed sandpiper,
Eurynorhynchus pygmeus
Where found: Russia, Bangladesh and Burma
Numbers left: 100 breeding pairs
Tonkin snub-nosed monkey,
Rhinopithecus avunculus
Where found: Vietnam
Numbers left: 200
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/the-100-species-at-risk-of-extinction--because-man-has-no-use-for-them-8122483.html
