In an update today of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List, the membership Union listed the Komodo dragons of Indonesia as "endangered" species.
In a Phys.org report, the IUCN also cautioned the threat of possible extinction of two-in-five sharks. The said Komodo dragons are stuck on island habitats that had turned smaller because of the rising seas.
Approximately 28 percent of 138,000 percent analyzed by the Union are now said to be in danger of disappearing in the wild permanently, as the destructive effect of human activity on the natural world gets deeper.
Nonetheless, the most recent update of the Red List for Threatened Species underscores as well the potential for restoration, with four commercially fished tuna species that pull back from a slide headed for extinction following 10 years of initiatives to limit over-exploration.
The most remarkable recovery was observed in Atlantic Bluefin tuna, which moved from being "endangered" through three classifications to the safe zone of "least concern."
Increasing Threat of Extinction Due to Impacts of Climate Change
Described as the largest living lizards, Komodo dragons are found only in the World Heritage-listed Komodo National Park and neighboring Flores.
This species, according to the IUCN, is growingly threatened by the impacts of climate change. It added, rising sea levels are expected to shrink its small habitat at least 30 percent over the succeeding 45 years.
Beyond the protected areas, the frightening throwbacks are quickly losing ground as well, as the footprint of humanity expands.
According to Zoological Society of London Conservation Director Andrew Terry, the notion that these prehistoric animals have moved a step nearer extinction because partly, climate change is frightening.
Terry explained the species' drop is a "clarion call for nature to be placed" at the core of every decision-making at crisis UN climate talks in Glasgow.
Endangered Species
The most wide-ranging sharks and rays survey ever undertaking, in the meantime, showed that 37 percent of 1,200 species assessed are now categorized as directly threatened with extinction, being classified in one of three classifications, vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered.
Lead author of a study published underpinning the assessment from the Red List, Nicholas Dulvy, a Simon Fraser University Professor said, that's a third more species in danger than just seven years ago.
The group's conservation status, as a whole, continues deteriorating, and the overall risk of extinction is increasing at such an alarming rate.
Essentially, five sawfish species, whose serrated snouts are tangled in what this report indicated as "cast off fishing gear." More so, the iconic shortfin maco shark is among the endangered species.
The 'Green Status'
Also, early today, the IUCN officially launched its first worldwide standard for assessing species recovery and gauging conservation impacts. This standard is called the "green status," as described in the IUCN Red List.
According to Professor Molly Grace from the University of Oxford, and co-chair of the Green Status, during the press conference, initiatives to stop extensive drops in figures and diversity of plants and animals have mainly failed.
In 2019, the biodiversity experts cautioned that a million species are on the edge of extinction, raising the threat that the Earth is on the brink of its sixth mass extinction occurrence in 500 million years.
Related information about Komodo dragons is shown on Hnong SqeezE's YouTube video below:
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