Almost one in five reptiles struggling to survive 15 February
2013 | International news release Nineteen percent of the
world’s reptiles are estimated to be threatened with extinction,
states a paper published today by the Zoological Society of
London (ZSL) in conjunction with experts from the IUCN Species
Survival Commission (SSC). The study, printed in the journal of
Biological Conservation, is the first of its kind summarising
the global conservation status of reptiles. More than 200 world
renowned experts assessed the extinction risk of 1,500 randomly
selected reptiles from across the globe. Out of the 19% of
reptiles threatened with extinction, 12% classified as
Critically Endangered, 41% Endangered and 47% Vulnerable. “This
is a very important step towards assessing the conservation
status of reptiles globally,” says Philip Bowles, Coordinator of
the Snake and Lizard Red List Authority of the IUCN Species
Survival Commission. “The findings sound alarm bells about the
state of these species and the growi