Category: News

Key Largo tree cactus Pilosocereus millspaughii
The Key Largo tree cactus is now considered extinct in the United States. Small populations of this very rare plant species still exist in the Bahamas, Haiti, Cuba, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. (© Luke Padon, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Loss in the USA: Key Largo Tree Cactus Eradicated by Climate Change

Scientists have documented the first local extinction of a species caused by climate change and the associated rise in sea levels. The up-to-seven-meter-tall Key Largo tree cactus (Pilosocereus millspaughii), which was found only in the Florida Keys in the USA, has disappeared. The rare tree-like cactus species has gone extinct

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Berezowski’s reed snake
The rare Berezowski's reed snake has not been sighted for at least 26 years. (© Liang Y-T, Huang Z-D, Ding L, Vogel G, Ananjeva NB, Orlov NL, Shi S-C, Wu Z-J, Chen Z-N (2024) Revalidated after having been described more than a century ago: Calamaria berezowskii Günther, 1896 (Squamata, Colubridae) from Sichuan, Southwestern China. Zoosystematics and Evolution 100(3): 897-911. https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.100.125798)

South China: Mystery of Berezowski’s Reed Snake Solved

The snake species Berezowski’s reed snake (Calamaria berezowskii), described as a new species in 1896, puzzled scientists for a long time, as it was unclear whether it even existed. Due to a lack of sightings, it was assumed that the missing Berezowski’s reed snake was not a distinct taxon but

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Preventing the Sixth Mass Extinction by Protecting the Kazakhstan Steppe
The Kazakh Steppe in the western part of Central Asia is considered the largest dry steppe in the world. According to the latest study, this area is among the top 10 ecoregions in the Palearctic. (© Radosław Botev, CC BY 3.0 PL, via Wikimedia Commons)

Sixth Mass Extinction Can Be Averted by Protecting Certain Areas – New Study Reveals

In a new study published in Frontiers in Science, conservationists and scientists demonstrate that preserving biodiversity hotspots, which comprise only 1.22 percent of the Earth’s surface, could protect the remaining biodiversity and prevent a sixth mass extinction. This strategy could save endangered species from extinction and secure the planet’s wildlife

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Mosquitoes in Hawaii to dave the ʻAkiapolaʻau (Hemignathus munroi)
The ʻakiapolaʻau (Hemignathus munroi) is among the species in Hawaii threatened by avian malaria, against which they have no natural immunity. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies the bird as "critically endangered." (© Photographer: Carter Atkinson, U.S. Geological Survey, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)

Saving the Last Honeycreepers: Millions of Mosquitoes in Hawaii to Prevent Extinction

For the Kauaʻi ʻōʻō, the ʻula-ʻai-hāwane, and the black mamo, any help comes too late, but the still existing honeycreepers (Drepanidini) and numerous other bird species on the Hawaiian Islands can still be saved. An unusual measure could now secure the survival of the endangered species. The problem: Avian malaria

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IUCN Red List 2024: Pygmy Elephant from Borneo (Elephas_maximus_borneensis)
Over the past 75 years, the number of dwarf elephants living in Borneo has dramatically declined. The lowland forests they inhabit are being extensively logged, leading to the elephants now being classified as endangered. (© Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons))

IUCN Red List 2024: One Thousand Additional Animal and Plant Species Threatened with Extinction

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has released its latest Red List of Threatened Species. In its 60th year, the list, which now includes more than 163,040 species, warns of a concerning rise in the number of animals and plants threatened with extinction. Over 45,000 species are now

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Animals declared extinct in 2023: Epioblasma torulosa
Two subspecies of the freshwater mussel Epioblasma torulosa were delisted from the Endangered Species Act by the FWS and officially declared extinct in 2023. (© Naturalis Biodiversity Center, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Animals declared extinct in 2023

In 2023, scientists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) officially declared 21 species, including ten birds, eight mussels, two fish, and one mammal, to be extinct. Additionally, the international conservation organization IUCN changed the status of the Java stingaree (Urolophus javanicus) on its Red List to “extinct.” This

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Birds lost to science: White-breasted Zosterops (Zosterops albogularis)
The white-chested white-eye is also on the list of lost bird species. It was native to Norfolk Island and the last sighting of a specimen was in 2005. (© Rawpixel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

New Analysis: 126 Birds Lost to Science – no Confirmed Sighting in at Least a Decade

As part of the project The Search for Lost Birds, a collaboration between Re:wild, the American Bird Conservancy, and BirdLife International, the most comprehensive listing of bird species considered lost to science has been created. A newly published study in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment reveals that

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Polar Bears could go extinct by the 2030s
A warming of more than two degrees above pre-industrial levels threatens the southern and western polar bear populations of Hudson Bay with local extinction. (© Arturo de Frias Marques, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Global warming: Polar bears could become extinct as early as the 2030s

The future of polar bears in Hudson Bay, Canada, looks bleak: a new study warns that polar bears could become regionally extinct as early as the 2030s if global warming continues to rise and surpass critical thresholds. Researchers from several North American and international institutions caution that a global temperature

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Tylototriton ngoclinhensis
The species name ngoclinhensis refers to the type locality of the newly discovered Ngoc Linh crocodile newt (Tylototriton ngoclinhensis), which is Ngoc Linh Mountain in the central highlands of Vietnam. (© Phung TM, Pham CT, Nguyen TQ, Ninh HT, Nguyen HQ, Bernardes M, Le ST, Ziegler T, Nguyen TT (2023) Southbound – the southernmost record of Tylototriton (Amphibia, Caudata, Salamandridae) from the Central Highlands of Vietnam represents a new species. ZooKeys 1168: 193-218.)

Newly discovered animals 2023

It is said that between 11,000 and 58,000 animal and plant species irreversibly go extinct each year, but there is also good news: around 18,000 new species are described and named by taxonomists each year; this number includes extinct or fossilized organisms, as well as bacteria and viruses. Even in

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