Komodo dragon, 2-in-5 shark species lurch towards extinction
Also: Komodo dragon in danger of extinction as sea levels rise (The Guardian)
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Source: Agence France-Presse
Komodo dragon, 2-in-5 shark species lurch towards extinction
Issued on: 04/09/2021 - 14:34
Marseille (AFP)
Trapped on island habitats made smaller by rising seas, Indonesia's Komodo dragons were listed as "endangered" on Saturday, in an update of the wildlife Red List that also warned overfishing threatens nearly two-in-five sharks with extinction.
About 28 percent of the 138,000 species assessed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for its survival watchlist are now at risk of vanishing in the wild forever, as the destructive impact of human activity on the natural world deepens.
But the latest update of the Red List for Threatened Species also highlights the potential for restoration, with four commercially fished tuna species pulling back from a slide towards extinction after a decade of efforts to curb overexploitation.
The most spectacular recovery was seen in the Atlantic bluefin tuna, which leapt from "endangered" across three categories to the safe zone of "least concern".
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Read more: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210904-komodo-dragon-2-in-5-shark-species-lurch-towards-extinction
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Source: The Guardian
Komodo dragon in danger of extinction as sea levels rise
World’s largest lizard moves from vulnerable to endangered on IUCN red list of threatened species
Phoebe Weston
@phoeb0
Sat 4 Sep 2021 13.30 BST
The komodo dragon, the world’s largest lizard, is threatened with extinction as rising water levels driven by the climate crisis shrink its habitat, according to the latest “red list” update.
Endemic to a handful of Indonesian islands, the komodo dragon lives on the edge of forest or in open savannah, rarely venturing higher than 700 metres above sea level. Rising water levels are set to affect 30% of its habitat in the next 45 years, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which has changed its status from vulnerable to endangered.
The update – announced at the IUCN world conservation congress in Marseille – is the first for the komodo dragon in more than 20 years. It comes after the first peer-reviewed paper on how global heating would affect the giant lizards concluded “urgent conservation actions are required to avoid risk of extinction”.
As well as being unable to move to higher ground, the komodo dragons’ habitat is becoming increasingly fragmented by human activity, which makes populations less genetically healthy and more vulnerable. Their habitat range on the island of Flores in south-eastern Indonesia is thought to have shrunk by more than 40% between 1970 and 2000.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/04/komodo-dragon-climate-crisis-sea-levels-rise-extinction-aoe