A new study related to animal population decline presents alarming data. It was carried out by scientists from Queen’s University Belfast, in the United Kingdom, and the Czech University of Life Sciences.
In addition to the worrying discovery, the researchers involved also used the space to criticize the metrics of the Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), responsible for determining whether or not a species is in danger of extinction.
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The new study focuses on discovering the level of decline in animal individuals present in the fauna, examining information from the Anthropocene period. In other words, it evaluates the population quantity of animals during the most recent era in the history of Earth.
The research was published in the journal Biological Reviews and, to carry it out, 70 thousand species of fauna were analyzed.
In conclusion, alarming data was released showing that 48% of these species experience major population declines. On the other hand, only 3% of them recorded a population increase.
(Image: disclosure)
For Catherine Finn, a doctoral candidate at Queen’s University Belfast and one of the study’s authors, there is another extremely important factor.
By using the traditional IUCN method, many of the animals studied would not be at risk of extinction, even though their research shows that their numbers have fallen.
The research carried out to measure the population decline of animal species takes advantage of the space to criticize the traditional IUCN metrics, as mentioned above.
At the moment, the Union uses a concept of “threatened conservation categories” and estimates that approximately 28% of animals are currently at risk of extinction.
The research carried out by universities takes into account what they call “population trends”. To reach an extinction threat conclusion, they examine whether the number of individuals of a species is increasing, decreasing, or remaining stable.
In this way, a serious divergence between the methods is established, a fact that has caused rifts between the aforementioned institutions.
