Giant jewels and spray toads: The world's rarest species

NewScientist 13:31 03 November 2009

 More species than ever before are facing extinction, according to the latest Red List of Threatened Species from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

See some of the most endangered Next


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The Red List

Compiled by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in Gland, Switzerland, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species aims to catalogue and highlight those plants and animals that are facing a higher risk of global extinction.

According to the list, 17,291 species are going the way of the dodo, and all classes of life are affected.

The list now includes:

21 per cent of known mammals, including the western lowland gorilla (pictured)
30 per cent of known amphibians,
12 per cent of known birds,
28 per cent of reptiles,
37 per cent of freshwater fish,
35 per cent of invertebrates, and
a massive 70 per cent of plants.

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