Reptiles have suffered a “staggering” decline in the Canary Islands and Ibiza, but there is good news for a European, indeed Spanish, species.
More than 45,000 species are threatened with extinction1,000 more than last year, according to an international conservation organization.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) published its latest Red List of Threatened Species on Thursday.
Blame the pressures of climate changeinvasive species and human activity, such as illicit trade and infrastructure expansion, leading to more species on the verge of extinction.
In its 60th year, the list raises the alarm about endangered animals and plants, but also highlights conservation success stories, such as the Iberian Lynx.
The recorded species list now includes 163,040 species in total, which is an increase of about 6,000 from last year.
Of those more than 163,000 registered there are more than 45,000 in danger of extinction, such as the Copiapoa cactusnative to the Chilean coastal desert of Atacama, the Borneo elephant and the giant lizard of Gran Canaria They are among the threatened species, revealed the IUCN.
The trend of social networks among the factors of extinction
Los Copiapoa cactus have long been coveted as decorative plantswhich has fueled an illegal trade that has been amplified by social networks, where enthusiasts and merchants display and sell the cacti.
A staggering 82% of the species is now endangered, a significant jump from 55% in 2013, according to the report.
The IUCN said the decline is due to increased demand from cactus Chileans in Europe and Asia as ornamental species. Smugglers and poachers who facilitate the trade, the organization said, have gained greater accessibility to the plants’ habitat due to roads and the expansion of housing in the Atacama area.
“The poached Copapoa They have a gray tone and are covered in a dusty-looking bloom that protects the plants in one of the driest deserts on Earth, while cultivated plants appear greener“explains Pablo Guerrero, member of the IUCN group on these plants.
The 2024 update also highlights the Bornean Asian elephant as an endangered species. It is estimated that Only about 1,000 Borneo elephants remain in the wild, according to IUCN analyses.
The population has decreased in the last 75 years due mainly to extensive logging of the Borneo forestswhich has destroyed much of the elephants’ habitat.
Conflicts with humans, loss of habitat due to agriculture and timber plantations, mining and infrastructure development, poachingexposure to agrochemicals and collisions with vehicles also threaten the species, according to the IUCN.
The list also revealed the “staggering” decline of endemic reptiles -the giant lizard and the skink- in the Canary Islands and Ibiza due to predation by invasive snakes.
The “greatest recovery” of a species
In a contrasting story, conservation efforts have revived the Iberian lynx from the brink of extinctionwith a population increase of 62 individuals mature in 2001 to 648 in 2022 and more than 2,000 today.
The species revived thanks to the restoration of the natural habitat of Mediterranean scrub and forest of the Iberian Lynxas well as the increase in the abundance of its main prey, the European rabbit.
Conservation efforts have also consisted of increase genetic diversity of the lynx by relocating it to new areas and raising it in controlled environments.
Since 2010, there have been reintroduced more than 400 Iberian lynx in areas of Portugal and Spainaccording to the IUCN.
ADVERTISINGEs “the largest recovery of a feline species never achieved through conservation,” said Francisco Javier Salcedo Ortiz, who led the Iberian lynx conservation action.
But given that threats persist, mainly those derived from fluctuations in the population of its prey, poaching and road accidents, Salcedo Ortiz stated that “there is still a lot of work to do to guarantee the survival of Iberian lynx populations”.
