25% of world's mammals threatened by extinction

BARCELONA, Spain — A quarter of the world's wild-mammal species are at risk of extinction, according to a comprehensive global survey released here Monday.

The new assessment — which took 1,700 experts in 130 countries five years to complete — paints "a bleak picture," leaders of the project wrote in a paper being published in the journal Science.

The overview, made public at the quadrennial World Conservation Congress of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), covers all 5,487 wild species identified since 1500. It is the most thorough tally of land and marine mammals since 1996.

"Mammals are definitely declining, and the driving factors are habitat destruction and over-harvesting," said Jan Schipper, lead author and the IUCN's global mammals-assessment coordinator.

The researchers concluded that 25 percent of the mammal species for which they had sufficient data are threatened with extinction, but Schipper added the figure could be as high as 36 percent because information on some species is scarce.

Land and marine mammals face different threats, the scientists said, and large mammals are more vulnerable than small ones. For land species, habitat loss and hunting represent the greatest danger; marine mammals are more threatened by accidental killing through fishing, ship strikes and pollution.

Imperiled animals

Although large species such as primates (including the Sumatran orangutan and red colobus monkeys) and ungulates (hoofed animals) might seem more physically imposing, the researchers wrote that these animals are more imperiled than small creatures such as rodents or bats because they "tend to have lower population densities, slower life histories, and larger home ranges, and are more likely to be hunted."

Primates face some of the most intense pressures: According to the survey, 79 percent of primates in South and Southeast Asia are facing extinction.

In some cases the scientists have a precise sense of how imperiled a species has become: There are 19 Hainan gibbons left in the wild on the large island off China's southeast coast, Conservation International President Russ Mittermeier said.

Some figures vague

In other instances, such as with the beaked whale and jaguar, researchers have a much vaguer idea of their numbers. Among the hoofed animals who are endangered, scientists list the Dama gazelle and the Malaysian tapir.

Technological advances — such as satellite and radio tagging, camera tracking and satellite-based GPS (global positioning system) mapping — have helped scientists gauge mammals' habitat more thoroughly.

The authors of the assessment wrote that most land mammals occupy "areas smaller than the United Kingdom," while "the range of most marine mammals is smaller than one-fifth of the Indian Ocean."

The authors said the species declines they have observed are not inevitable. "At least 5 percent of currently threatened species have stable or increasing populations," they wrote, "which indicates that they are recovering from past threats."

"It comes down to protecting habitats effectively, through protected areas, and preventing hunting and other forms of exploitation," Mittermeier said.

As one example of how conservation can work, he noted that in areas where scientific researchers work, animals stand a much better chance of surviving. "Where you have a research presence, it's as good or better than a guard force," he said.

Schipper offered the model of the U.S. effort to bring back the black-footed ferret, which was essentially extinct on the North American prairie as of 1996.

"Now it's endangered, which, in this case, is a huge improvement. When governments and scientists commit resources to a project, many species can be recovered."

Rescued penguins

flown back home

SÃO PAULO, Brazil — More than 370 penguins that mysteriously washed up on Brazil's equatorial beaches were flown south on a huge air-force cargo plane and released closer to the frigid waters they call home, animal advocates said Monday.

Onlookers cheered as the young Magellanic penguins were set free on a beach in southern Brazil and scampered into the ocean, the International Fund for Animal Welfare said. It called the penguin release the largest ever in South America.

The penguins were among nearly 1,000 that have washed up on Brazil's northeastern coast in recent months, said spokesman Chris Cutter. About 20 percent of the penguins died and the rest were not healthy enough to send back.

Environmentalists say it is not known why the penguins were stranded so far north.