Life has colonized every corner of the planet, developing innovative survival strategies through evolution, but these strategies are increasingly being destroyed by human activity, according to this year's Red List of Threatened Species.
Many snails, slugs, and mollusks have adapted to life in deep-sea hydrothermal vents, where water temperatures can reach 450°C (842°F). However, the Red List assessment shows that two-thirds of the hundreds of snail species threatened by deep-sea mining are at risk of extinction.
Diamond mining has also put another extraordinary creature at risk of extinction - the Desert Rain Frog. Most frogs depend on water to survive, but the plump Desert Rain Frog hardly needs any water at all. It avoids the sun in the South African desert by burrowing deep into the sand, emerging only at night to catch insects.
But threatened species can survive, said the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which produces the Red List. The new list shows that the Numbat, a striped, termite-eating marsupial from Australia, has recovered from the brink, thanks to protection from feral cats and foxes.
"Life on Earth has adapted to survive in the most hostile and unusual habitats [but] as biodiversity grows across the planet, even the most innovative survival strategies are at risk," said Dr. Grethel Aguilar, IUCN Director General. "But there is a clear path out of the biodiversity crisis: nature conservation works. By protecting the amazing range of biodiversity on this planet, we can maintain a welcoming environment for both people and wildlife."
In April, an IUCN update officially classified emperor penguins as endangered due to mass chick drowning as sea ice melts from the climate crisis.
More than 100 snail species that live only in hydrothermal vents, where water heated by volcanic rocks is spewed from the seafloor, are already endangered. Many of them have only been discovered in the past decade, but are already at risk of extinction.
Deep-sea mineral exploration and mining smothers animals with sediment. One snail, Lirapex felix, has a critically endangered classification due to mining activity in the Indian Ocean.
However, more than 30 species of vents are not threatened because they live in marine protected areas where mining is not allowed. These include the shell-decorated snail Provanna exquisita, which lives only in the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Fire Arc National Wildlife Refuge.
"This global assessment reveals that [vent] snails are among the most threatened animal groups," said Professor Julia Sigwart at the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History, an IUCN Red List partner that coordinated the assessment. "It provides important information as the international body governing the seas meets in Jamaica this month." The IUCN called for a moratorium on deep-sea mining in 2021.
The Desert Rain Frog is classified as vulnerable due to diamond mining and the expansion of energy infrastructure along the west coast of southern Africa and Namibia. The frog faces additional pressure from increased demand in the exotic pet trade following a viral video showing the species emitting distress calls.
The good news for numbats comes after decades of conservation work that has helped numbers recover from only 300 in the 1970s to between 2,000 and 3,000 today. The numbats moved from endangered to vulnerable on the Red List.
The impact of feral cats and foxes has been reduced by using baits and predator-proof fences, as well as breeding in captivity at Perth Zoo and translocations from healthy groups. As a result, at least five more self-sustaining populations have formed. However, the species occupies only 0.04% of its original range in South Australia, meaning continued conservation work is needed, experts say.
The IUCN Red List has confirmed that five more Australian marsupials are extinct, with no sightings for more than 60 years. The Topek, South, North, and Little Mulgar were rat-sized predators, and the Little Bettong was a rabbit-sized hopping marsupial. They were likely victims of feral cats and foxes. More than 40 modern mammals have been documented as extinct in Australia.
"The numbats assessment shows that long-term conservation efforts work; without them, feral cats and foxes would continue to drive the extinction of Australia's small marsupials and native rodents," said Professor John Woinarski, co-chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission group on Australian marsupials and monotremes.
"Continued management is vital not only to maintain the unique evolutionary lineage of the numbats as the last surviving member of the Myrmecobiidae family, but also to support its role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem, as its termite digging increases the penetration of rain into the soil, helping to protect forests."
The IUCN Red List includes 175,909 species, with 49,505 threatened, although many species have not yet been officially assessed.
