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One in five migratory species is threatened with extinction and 44 per cent have a decreasing population trend, according to the United Nations' first 'State of the World's Migratory Species' report released on Monday. The situation is far worse in aquatic ecosystems, with 97 per cent of the migratory fish listed for protection under the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) at risk of extinction. Established in 1979, the CMS focuses on bringing countries and stakeholders together to agree on the actions needed to ensure that migratory species survive and thrive. According to the report, 82 per cent of the species listed under Appendix I of the convention are threatened with extinction and 76 per cent have a declining population trend. Eighteen per cent of Appendix II species are globally threatened, with almost half (42 per cent) showing decreasing population trends. The convention's Appendix I lists migratory species which are endangered. Appendix II lists migratory species "wh
Nearly half of the world's migratory species are in decline, according to a new United Nations report released Monday. Many songbirds, sea turtles, whales, sharks and other migratory animals move to different environments with changing seasons and are imperiled by habitat loss, illegal hunting and fishing, pollution and climate change. About 44% of migratory species worldwide are declining in population, the report found. More than a fifth of the nearly 1,200 species monitored by the U.N. are threatened with extinction. These are species that move around the globe. They move to feed and breed and also need stopover sites along the way, said Kelly Malsch, lead author of the report released at a U.N. wildlife conference in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Habitat loss or other threats at any point in their journey can lead to dwindling populations. Migration is essential for some species. If you cut the migration, you're going to kill the species, said Duke University ecologist Stuart Pimm, w
Climate change is deteriorating amphibian species around the world and the species continue to be the most threatened class of vertebrates, new research in Nature journal reports. In India, 136 of the 426 species evaluated in the study were found to be threatened, an international team of researchers, including those from Council of Scientific & Industrial Research-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CSIR-CCMB), Hyderabad, and other Indian institutes, said in their study. "Among the states with high amphibian diversity, Kerala has 178 species of which 84 are threatened, Tamil Nadu is next with 128 species of which 54 are threatened and Karnataka is in third place with 100 species of which 30 are threatened," said study author Gururaja K. V. and faculty at Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Bengaluru campus. Current and projected climate change effects are estimated to be responsible for 39 per cent of status .