According to a prominent environmentalist organization, there may be 5,578 tigers in the wild, which is 40% more than was previously believed. Despite this, tigers are still an endangered species.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the increase in numbers was caused by better monitoring, and the population is believed to be steady or growing (IUCN). Projects to safeguard habitat have demonstrated that “recovery is possible.”
There are believed to be between 3,726 and 5,578 wild tigers, which is a 40% increase over the 2015 estimate.
The tiger was still listed as endangered, but the population trend showed that initiatives like the IUCN’s integrated tiger habitat conservation program “are succeeding and recovery is conceivable as long as conservation efforts continue,” the organization stated.
The main dangers included habitat damage brought on by agriculture and human settlement, hunting and poaching of tigers’ prey, and poaching of tigers themselves.
The IUCN stated that protecting the species requires “expanding and connecting protected areas, ensuring they are successfully maintained, and collaborating with local communities living in and around tiger habitats.”
According to the World Wildlife Fund, the population of wild tigers has begun to increase in their primary habitats in India, Nepal, Bhutan, Russia, and China after a century-long decrease.
The IUCN revised its “red list” of threatened species, the most comprehensive source of information on the state of worldwide conservation for plants, animals, and fungi, and it also included a reevaluation of the number of tigers.
Due to climate change and habitat loss, the migratory monarch butterfly is now listed on the red list as an endangered species.
Additionally, dams and poaching have put all remaining sturgeon species in danger of going extinct.
The IUCN director general, Bruno Oberle, stated that the red list update released today “highlights the fragility of nature’s wonders, such as the unique spectacle of monarch butterflies traveling across thousands of kilometers.”
“We need effective, fair-minded protected and conserved areas, together with resolute action to fight climate change and restore ecosystems, to preserve the amazing diversity of nature.”
The list places species in one of eight threat categories. The most recent assessment included 147,517 species, 41,459 of which were classified as endangered.
9,065 of them are considered to be critically endangered, 16,094 to be endangered, and 16,300 to be vulnerable.
The list, which was created in 1964, includes 902 extinct species, including 82 that have gone extinct in the wild.
The journey of the migratory monarch butterfly, a subspecies of the monarch, from Mexico and California to summer mating areas all over the United States and Canada, is well-known. The IUCN reported that the native population had decreased by between 22 and 72 percent over the previous ten years, with significant portions of its winter habitat being destroyed by logging and deforestation.
Meanwhile, milkweed, the host plant their larvae feed on, and butterflies were destroyed by pesticides and herbicides employed in industrial agriculture.
The threat posed by climate change was also rapidly expanding, with the considerable effects of drought, wildfires, extremely high temperatures, and severe weather.
The assessment of monarch butterflies was led by Anna Walker, who remarked, “It is difficult to see monarch butterflies and their incredible migration teeter on the edge of failure, yet there are signals of optimism.”
“We all have a responsibility to play in ensuring that this iconic butterfly makes a full recovery. From planting native milkweed and limiting pesticide use to supporting the protection of overwintering areas and contributing to community science.”
According to the IUCN, the western population, which decreased from as many as 10 million to 1,914 butterflies between the 1980s and 2021, was the one most at risk of going extinct.
Between 1996 and 2014, the bigger Eastern population decreased by 84 percent.
According to the IUCN, “concern persists as to whether sufficient butterflies survive to maintain populations and prevent extinction.”
The 26 surviving sturgeon species are now all at risk of extinction, up from 85% in 2009, according to the worldwide sturgeon reassessment.
They declined more rapidly than was initially believed over the last three generations.
While 17 species are now severely endangered, the Yangtze sturgeon has gone from being critically endangered to being extinct in the wild.
The Chinese paddlefish’s extinction was confirmed by the reevaluation.
The IUCN stated that sturgeons have been overfished for their meat and caviar for many years.
This article was first published by The Guardian on 22 July 2022. Lead Image: A Royal Bengal tiger in Kaziranga national park in Assam, India. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images.
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