Global warming will threaten up to 50 percent of the world's animal species, according to a study recently published by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
Working with the University of East Anglia and the James Cook University, the nongovernmental organization examined 35 so-called priority places around the world, which are home to some of the planet's most exceptional ecosystems and habitats.
These include biodiversity hot spots such as the Amazon basin and Madagascar.
If temperatures continue to rise in these regions as predicted, local wildlife will be severely threatened, the study concluded.
Almost 50 percent of animal species are at risk of extinction in those places by 2080 if global temperatures increase by 4.5 degrees Celsius (8.1 degrees Fahrenheit).
Even reaching the goal of keeping global temperatures under a 2-degree Celsius rise over pre-industrial levels as determined by the Paris Agreement will still have harm wildlife: almost 25 percent of species in priority places are still at risk under such a scenario, according to the study.
WWF has identified 35 so-called Priority Places around the world which are considered hot-spots for biodiversity
No escape
Around the world, animals such as the African elephant or the giant panda could vanish from their natural habitats.
But plants, amphibians and reptiles face an even greater struggle for survival, as they have a harder time escaping the effects of climate change.
"Species reorganize with the climate," WWF spokesman Jeff Price told DW, "but they do that at different rates. Birds, for example, deal with the effects of climate change reasonably well."
The study makes a distinction between species who have the capacity for biological dispersal — that is, the ability to migrate from one site to another — and those that cannot.
If global temperatures increase by 4.5 degree Celsius, 13 percent of migratory birds are at risk of local extinction, compared to 74 percent of amphibians, which are unable to move as far.
However, even those species that are able to move between different sites might face hindrances. "That's why it's best to try and keep things intact as they currently are," says Price.
Gerhard Haszprunar, director of the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology in Munich, thinks the study's findings are plausible.
But he points out that even more species would be considered at risk if ocean habitats were also taken into account.
The rate of species extinction is already alarmingly high, Haszprunar confirmed to DW. He sees this as not just a direct result of climate change, but also linked to deforestation and intenstive agriculture.
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Red List: Human activity threatens thousands of species with extinction
Junk food parrots
The population of keas, New Zealand’s Bird of the Year 2017, is declining rapidly, mostly due to tourists who keep feeding the curious parrots junk food. As a result, the birds get used to trying novel food and end up eating poison baits meant to control pests such as rats, stoats, or possums, which destroy up to 60 percent of the birds' nests each year. You can see the connection, can't you?
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Red List: Human activity threatens thousands of species with extinction
No sand eel, no kittiwake
Black-legged kittiwakes rely on certain key prey, like sand eels. Lacking the food, breeding colonies in the North Atlantic and Pacific are struggling to feed their chicks. Globally, the species is thought to have declined by around 40 percent since the 1970s. The main cause is overfishing and alterations in the ocean due to climate change.
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Red List: Human activity threatens thousands of species with extinction
Birds at peril
The yellow-breasted bunting — once abundant in Asia — shows how quickly survival can become a struggle. In 2004, the bird was listed under "least concern" in the Red List. This year, its risk status was raised to critically endangered. Its population is dropping rapidly due to capture in nets, mostly in China along its migratory route.
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Red List: Human activity threatens thousands of species with extinction
Vaquita: extinction in real time
The vaquita porpoise is one of many marine mammals facing existential threats from fishing - it's on the verge due to being accidentally caught in nets set for the totoaba, a fish trafficked for its air bladder. The vaquita's status "should be a wakeup call that the threats to cetaceans continue, requiring our continued vigilance," said Thomas Lacher of the IUCN Red List Committee.
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Red List: Human activity threatens thousands of species with extinction
Close to shores, dolphins suffer
The Irrawaddy dolphin has been shifted from from vulnerable to endagered — its numbers having halved in the last 60 years. Entanglement in fishing nets is driving its decline, according to cetacean specialist Randall Reeves of the IUCN. "Without practical solutions to this problem, the declines of dolphins and porpoises are bound to continue for the foreseeable future."
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Red List: Human activity threatens thousands of species with extinction
Unsustainable agriculture hurts wild crops
Deforestation, overgrazing and herbicides pose a threat to wild crop species, the Red List update points out. Several relatives of staple crops including rice, wheat and yam have been included in the list for the first time this year. "We ignore the fate of these species at our own peril," said Nigel Maxted, crop specialist at the IUCN.
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Red List: Human activity threatens thousands of species with extinction
Fewer snowy owls than assumed
The snowy owl has shot up to vulnerable status, with recent population estimates much lower than previously thought. Climate change has hit the iconic Arctic bird hard, increasing snowmelt and reducing the availability of rodent prey. A quarter of bird species reassessed in the Red List, including the snowy owl, have become more endangered.
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Red List: Human activity threatens thousands of species with extinction
Reebok namesake in danger
Five species of African antelopes — of which four were previously assessed as least concern — are declining drastically as a result of poaching, habitat degradation and competition with domestic livestock. One of these is the grey rhebok, which the Reebok sports brand is named after.
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Red List: Human activity threatens thousands of species with extinction
World's largest antelope in trouble
The world's largest antelope, the giant eland — previously assessed as least concern — is now vulnerable. Its estimated global population is between 12,000 and 14,000 at most, with fewer than 10,000 mature animals. This species is declining due to poaching for bushmeat, encroachment into protected areas and expansion of agriculture and livestock grazing.
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Red List: Human activity threatens thousands of species with extinction
Nancy Ma's night monkey
Nancy Ma's night monkey has moved from least concern to vulnerable. The main threat to this Amazon forest primate is the illegal trade in animals from Peru to Brazil, where they are used for malaria research. Conversion of habitat to agriculture (rice, palm oil, and soy bean cultivation, as well as pastureland) is also affecting this species.
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Red List: Human activity threatens thousands of species with extinction
Good news for the Rodrigues flying fox
Some species show hope for the future. The Rodrigues flying fox has moved from the critically endangered to the endangered category — thanks to improved habitat protection, reforestation projects, better legal protection and enforcement against hunting. Lower incidence of cyclones, possibly the result of climate change, has also helped the population to increase.
Author: Dave Keating, Ajit Niranjan
