Arctic seals and more than half of bird species are in trouble on latest list of threatened species

Arctic seals face extinction because of climate change and more than half of the world’s bird species are declining under pressure from deforestation and agricultural expansion, according to an annual assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

One bright spot is green sea turtles, which have recovered significantly thanks to decades of conservation efforts, the IUCN said Friday as it published its latest Red List of Threatened Species.

With many animals increasingly at risk of disappearing forever, the updated list shows how species can emerge from the brink with dedicated efforts, Rima Jabado, vice chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, told The Associated Press.

“Hope and worry go hand in hand in this work,” Jabado wrote via email. “The same perseverance that brought back the green sea turtle can be reflected in small, everyday actions: supporting sustainable choices, supporting conservation initiatives, and urging leaders to keep their environmental promises. »

The list is updated annually by teams of scientists evaluating data on creatures around the world. The scope of the work is enormous and important to science, said Andrew Farnsworth, a visiting scientist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology who studies bird migration and was not involved in the IUCN report.

“Every time a study is done and every time there is a revision, there is more information and there is more opportunity to answer questions” about the species, some of which still remain a mystery to researchers, Farnsworth said.

Because all of the Arctic’s native marine mammals – seals, whales and polar bears – rely on the habitat provided by sea ice, they are all at risk as it shrinks due to human-caused climate change, said Kit Kovacs, co-chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Pinniped Specialist Group, who focuses on seals.

The three species highlighted in the latest IUCN report – harp seals, hooded seals and bearded seals – were listed as most concerned in the latest update, indicating they are increasingly at risk of extinction, Kovacs said.

The same melting of glaciers and sea ice, which is destroying seal habitats, “will also lead to an escalation of extreme weather events, which are already affecting populations around the world,” Kovacs wrote.

“Acting to help seals means acting to help humanity in the face of climate change,” Kovacs said.

The update also highlighted Madagascar, West Africa and Central America, where the Schlegel’s asity, black-helmeted hornbill and northern flapping-tailed nightingale have all been placed at near-threatened status. These are three specific birds in trouble, but numbers are declining for about three-fifths of the world’s birds.

Rainforest deforestation is part of a “depressing litany of threats” to birds, a list that includes agricultural expansion and intensification, competition from invasive species and climate change, said Stuart Butchart, chief scientist at BirdLife International.

“The fact that 61 percent of the world’s birds are in decline is a wake-up call we cannot afford to ignore,” Butchart said.

The annual United Nations climate summit will be held in November in Belém, Brazil, with a strong focus on the Amazon and the value of rainforests to humans and animals. But Cornell’s Farnsworth said he was “not so sure” that world leaders would take decisive action to protect imperiled bird species.

“I would like to think that things like birds are nonpartisan and that you can find common ground,” he said. “But it’s not easy.”

One success story is the return of green turtles to many parts of the world’s oceans. Experts see this as a positive because it shows how effective human interventions, such as legal protections and conservation programs, can be.

Still, “it’s important to note that sea turtle conservation efforts can take decades to realize the fruits of that work,” said Justin Perrault, vice president of research at the Loggerhead Marinelife Center in Juno Beach, Fla., who was not involved in the IUCN report.

The overall success of green turtles should be celebrated and used as an example along with other species, some of which, like hawksbills and leatherbacks, are not faring as well, said Nicolas Pilcher, executive director of the Marine Research Foundation.

And even for green turtles, there are still areas where climate change and other factors like erosion are damaging habitats, Pilcher said, and some of them are poorer communities that receive less conservation funding.

But in places where they have recovered, it’s “a great story: We can actually do something about it,” Pilcher said. “We can. We can make a difference.”

___

Follow Melina Walling on X at @MelinaWalling and on Bluesky at @melinawalling.bsky.social.

___

Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from several private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropic organizations, a list of supporters, and funded coverage areas at AP.org.