Saying the world is in an “extinction crisis,” the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) released its 2008 Red List of Threatened Species during a meeting in Barcelona, Spain, October 5-14.

 A new study to assess the world’s mammals shows at least 1,141 of the 5,487 wild mammal species, or almost one in four, are known to be threatened with extinction. The assessment was compiled by 1,800 experts in 130 countries over five years. It ranks species according to their population status and threat levels. It also shows the effects that habitat loss and degradation, over-exploitation, pollutants, and climate change are having on the world’s species. 

The Red List groups species in five threat categories, from “Extinct” to “Least Concern” to “Insufficient Data.”  More than 836 mammals are listed under insufficient data, which means they could be at-risk and would fall in the threatened category if more information became available. For example, one Arctic mammal, the narwhal, went from data deficient to near-threatened when more was learned about the species. Narwhals spend their lives in the Arctic waters bordering Russia, North America, and Greenland and are threatened by hunting, trade, habitat loss, and toxics and pollution that accumulate in the seas and affect their health and reproduction.

Some 188 mammals are in the highest-threat category of Critically Endangered. Habitat loss and degradation affect 40 percent of the world’s mammals. It is most extreme in Central and South America, West, East and Central Africa, Madagascar, and in South and Southeast Asia.

Environmental, business and indigenous leaders and representatives of states and nongovernmental organizations are among the 8,000 members of the IUCN who meet every four years to seek action and solutions for a diverse and sustainable world. Major analyses of the IUCN Red List were produced in 1996, 2000 and 2004. The 2008 Review of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is available at  www.iucn.org/redlist