Wildlife in Europe

05/23/2007

Disappearing Biodiversity

European Mammals under Threat

One in six European mammals is threatened and more than one-quarter of the continent's species are declining in population. A new EU study shows that deforestation, pollution and drainage of wetlands are robbing European mammals of their homes.

European mammals are under siege. Stocks of more than a quarter of all European mammals are diminishing, and almost one in six is threatened with extinction, a report released on Tuesday concluded.

The study, carried out by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) for the European Commission, found that population increases are only happening in 8 percent of the continent's animals. For every Bruno the brown bear that is born into the wild, many more mammals are caught in fishing nets or deprived of their habitat because of encroachment by humans in densely populated Europe.

Humans, the report concluded, are the leading cause of mammal habitat degradation -- we chop down their forests to build homes, we drain their wetlands to build cities and we overharvest nature.

And when we fish, we accidentally snag whales, porpoises and other marine mammals, we pollute their habitat and we run over them with our boats -- problems that are exacerbated in Europe's enclosed seas, like the Baltic, the Mediterranean and the Balack Sea. About 15 percent of all mammals in Europe are under threat, but life is far worse for marine mammals, some 22 percent of whom are threatened with extinction.

"This new assessment proves that many European mammals are declining at an alarming rate," said Julia Marton-Lefèvre, director general of IUCN. "However, we still have the power to reverse that trend, as the case of the European bison which was brought back from near extinction clearly shows." Each year IUCN publishes its red list of threatened species.

At the start of the 20th century, the only European bison left were in zoos, but thanks to repopulation programs, about 1,800 now live in the wild -- including the famous herds that can be found today grazing contentedly in Poland's Bialowieza forest. The European bison is the continent's largest herbivore.

But other species have fared less well. Among the list of the most-threatened mammals are the Iberian lynx, the world's most threatened wild cat species and the Mediterranean Monk seal are at particular risk. Only 150 Iberian lynx are alive today, and only 350-450 Mediterranean seals. Also high on the list of most-threatened species are the Saiga antilope, the blue whale and the North Atlantic right whale.

Of a total of 231 species of mammals living in Europe, IUCN identified 35 as threatened, including 14 animals that could soon become extinct in Europe.

The report found that animals living on the Balkan peninsula and in Europe's mountain areas are faring best in terms of biodiversity. But the worst place for animals to live, apparently, is new EU member state Bulgaria, which has a high rate of biodiversity but also the highest number of threatened species.

European Union member governments have pledged to stop the loss of biodiversity by 2010, but the report shows how great a challenge countries and their mammals still face.

Humans, said Marton-Lefèvre, have a "fragile place" within this Web. "Our actions have brought many species to the brink of extinction, however, we must also know that we have the power and opportunity to reverse the situation."

dsl

Article...

For reasons of data protection and privacy, your IP address will only be stored if you are a registered user of Facebook and you are currently logged in to the service. For more detailed information, please click on the "i" symbol.

Post to other social networks: