New Animals Added to 2009’s Red List of Endangered Species

The International Union for Conservation of Nature surveyed 47,677 of animal and plant species this year, ultimately listing 17,291 of the count under Red’s List of endangered species.

The Switzerland-based environmental group conducts a yearly examination of plant and animal species and 2009’s list topped last year’s by 2,800. However, the group admitted that the list is incomplete, and there remain millions of other specimens yet to be surveyed.

• » See also: Mistaken Identity: Hunters Kill Endangered Pygmy Hippo During Pig Hunt!
• » Get EcoWorldly by RSS or sign up by email.

Among the new animals to be included in the list is Rabb’s fringe-limbed tree frog, discovered merely four years ago. It is but one of the 1,895 amphibians that could soon die out like the Kihansi spray toad of southern Tanzania (pictured above) which is known to be extinct in the wild. In fact, the fringe-limbed tree frog is threatened by the same fungal disease that killed off the Kihansi spray toads. This disease called chytridiomycosis is thought to have spread and reached Panama through international trade and global warming.

Only one mammal made it to the list this year; a rodent called Eastern Voalavo, a species endemic to Madagascar’s mountainous forests. Almost 300 new species of reptiles have been added though, including the sail-fin water lizard and the Panay monitor lizard, both of which are found only in the Philippines. These two species of lizards are threatened with extinction due to logging activities in their native habitats and due to people hunting them for food.

*Image from Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons License

Tweet This Post