{"id":4319,"date":"2024-12-05T00:01:12","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T00:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gaudie.co.uk\/press\/?p=4319"},"modified":"2025-02-19T14:51:43","modified_gmt":"2025-02-19T14:51:43","slug":"meet-the-animals-who-went-extinct-in-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/scitech\/2024\/12\/05\/meet-the-animals-who-went-extinct-in-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the animals who went extinct in 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Human activities have accelerated biodiversity loss and driven extinction rates to the point that scientists now claim we are living through the Sixth Mass Extinction Event. Contrary to historical extinction events, this one is not driven by natural disasters but by humans; we have destroyed habitats, introduced non-native species and diseases, hunted, polluted and exacerbated climate change. The result? More than 37,000 species of all assessed species are threatened with extinction. With an extinction rate 10,000 times higher than the historical average, we are losing up to 100,000 species every year, many before they have ever been discovered. The IUCN Red List is an international project that offers a scientific inventory of the current conservation status and extinction risk of many known species. Every species on the list is assessed at least once every decade, and the record is updated twice yearly to reflect the latest known status of the listed species. The 2024 updates confirm several extinctions and that many species have become more threatened.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Newly Extinct Species<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Species<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>Reason for extinction<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>Trivia<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Slender-billed Curlew<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Habitat loss<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">They are the first known global bird extinction<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Chiem Whitefish<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pollution leading to habitat destruction and species invasion<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">They are one of several whitefish species declared extinct this year<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Captain Cook&#8217;s Bean Snail<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Invasive predator (Rosy Wolfsnail)<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Habitat and size indicated a robust species; however, they didn\u2019t survive in captive breeding programmes<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ou (bird)<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Habitat loss and degradation; Invasive species and predators introduction<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">They were described as moving slowly and heavily in treetops, making them vulnerable\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Thracian Shad<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dam construction led to habitat (a single Greek lake) altercation and pollution<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A close relative, the Killarney Shad, which is native to a single Irish lake, is critically endangered.<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><strong>Species Recently Moved to the Critically Endangered List<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><b>Species<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>Rate of decline<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>Where?<\/b><\/td>\n<td><b>Greatest threat<\/b><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gran Canaria Giant Lizard<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&gt;80% in 25 years<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Canary Islands, Spain<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Invasive species, loss of genetic variability and diseases<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ornate Eagle Ray<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&gt;80% in 40 years<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Northern Australia, South-East Asia, India, Red Sea\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fishing, climate change and urban development<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Gualecenita Stubfoot Toad<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&lt;49 mature individuals remaining<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Ecuador<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Habitat destruction, diseases, loss of genetic variability and invasive predators<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Speckled Ground Squirrel<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">&gt;90% in 10 years<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Belarus, Moldova, Poland, European Russia, Ukraine<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Habitat loss and fragmentation, hunting and trapping, pollution and climate change<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">White-winged Duck<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">150 &#8211; 450 mature individuals remaining<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">South-East Asia<\/span><\/td>\n<td><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Habitat destruction, hunting, pollution, climate change, loss of genetic variability and invasive species<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Human activities have accelerated biodiversity loss and driven extinction rates to the point that scientists now claim we are living through the Sixth Mass Extinction Event. Contrary to historical extinction events, this one is not driven by natural disasters but by humans; we have destroyed habitats, introduced non-native species and diseases, hunted, polluted and exacerbated [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":4323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","iawp_total_views":1117,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[227,224,226,225,223],"wf_post_folders":[180],"class_list":{"0":"post-4319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scitech","8":"tag-anastasia-goelitz","9":"tag-biodiversity-loss","10":"tag-critically-endangered","11":"tag-extinct-species","12":"tag-extinction-rates"},"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Anastasia Goelitz","author_link":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/author\/anastasia-goelitz\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/7798659296_546f9920ef_o-300x169.jpg","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/s\/scitech\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Science &amp; Environment<\/a>"],"unlinked":["<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Science &amp; Environment<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/s\/scitech\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Anastasia Goelitz<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/s\/scitech\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Biodiversity Loss<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/s\/scitech\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Critically Endangered<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/s\/scitech\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Extinct Species<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/s\/scitech\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Extinction Rates<\/a>"],"unlinked":["<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Anastasia Goelitz<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Biodiversity Loss<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Critically Endangered<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Extinct Species<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Extinction Rates<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 2 years ago","modified":"Updated 1 year ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on 5 December 2024","modified":"Updated on 19 February 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on 5 December 2024 00:01","modified":"Updated on 19 February 2025 14:51"},"featured_img_caption":"A Gran Canaria Giant Lizard. Credit: Stein Arsen Jensen","series_order":"","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4319"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5272,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4319\/revisions\/5272"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4319"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gaudie.co.uk\/wpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=4319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}