See the elephants facing extinction and the wild cats on the decline

More than 45,000 species are now threatened with extinction, 1,000 more than last year, according to an international conservation organization. The organization blames pressures from climate change, invasive species and human activities such as illegal trade and infrastructure expansion.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature released its latest Red List of Threatened Species on Thursday. The list, now in its 60th year, sounds the alarm about animals and plants facing extinction, but also highlights conservation success stories such as the Iberian lynx.

The total list of assessed species now includes 163,040 species, an increase of about 6,000 from last year. Copiapoa cacti, native to the Atacama coastal desert in Chile, the Bornean elephant and the giant lizard of Gran Canaria are among the threatened species, IUCN revealed.

Copiapoa cacti have long been sought after as ornamental plants. There is an illegal trade, fueled by social media, where enthusiasts and dealers display and sell the cacti.

As many as 82 percent of species are now at risk of extinction, a significant increase from 55 percent in 2013, the report said.

Plant poachers

IUCN said the decline is due to the surge in demand for Chilean cacti in Europe and Asia as an ornamental species. The smugglers and poachers who facilitate the trade have gained greater access to the plants’ habitat thanks to the expansion of roads and housing in the Atacama area, according to the organization.

“It is easy to distinguish whether copiapoa cacti have been poached or grown in a greenhouse,” says Pablo Guerrero, a member of the IUCN group responsible for the plants. “Poached copiapoa have a gray hue and are covered with a dusty-looking bloom that protects the plants in one of the driest deserts on Earth, while cultivated plants appear greener.”

The 2024 update also highlights the Asian Bornean elephant as an endangered species. According to IUCN analyses, there are only an estimated 1,000 Bornean elephants left in the wild.

LOOK | Bornean elephants are unique:

There are only about 1,000 Bornean elephants left in the wild

Craig Hilton, head of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s red list, explains what makes Borneo’s elephants unique.

The population has declined over the past 75 years, largely due to large-scale logging of Borneo’s forests, which has destroyed much of the elephants’ habitat. Conflict with humans, habitat loss due to agriculture and timber plantations, mining and infrastructure development, poaching, exposure 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 the invasive snakes.

Return of the Iberian lynx

In a contrasting story, conservation efforts have brought the Iberian lynx back from the brink of extinction, with the population increasing from 62 mature individuals in 2001 to 648 in 2022 and more than 2,000 today.

According to the Canada-based International Society for Endangered Cats, the cat was once considered one of the most endangered wild cat species in the world. However, between 1985 and 2001, the population declined by 87 percent and the number of breeding females fell by more than 90 percent.

The species was revived by restoring the Iberian lynx’s natural Mediterranean scrub and woodland habitat and by increasing the abundance of its primary prey, the European rabbit. Conservation efforts also include increasing the genetic diversity of the lynx by translocating them to new areas and breeding them in controlled environments.

Since 2010, more than 400 Iberian lynxes have been reintroduced to parts of Portugal and Spain, according to IUCN.

“It is the largest recovery of a feline species ever achieved through conservation,” said Francisco Javier Salcedo Ortiz, who led the conservation effort for the Iberian lynx.

But with threats still present, mainly due to fluctuations in prey populations, poaching and road kill, Salcedo Ortiz says there is still much work to be done to ensure the survival of Iberian lynx populations.