Sumatran Orangutan Up to Javan Tiger Endangered by 2050

VIVA – According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, around 41,000 faunas, nearly a third of all species will become extinct such as the Sumatran orangutan, Amur leopard, Sumatran elephant, black rhino, hawksbill turtle, Javan tiger, and river gorilla.

They are classified as 'critically endangered' meaning these species are at a very high risk of extinction in the wild, according to the IUCN and the World-Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

As quoted from the Live Science website on Tuesday, September 20, 2022, this category has a very high risk of extinction as a result of the rapid population decline, from 80 to more than 90 percent over the previous 10 years.

Many of these species are so threatened that they may not survive until 2050.

For example, only 70 Amur leopards remain in the wild, while the vaquita (Phocoena sinus), a dolphin species considered the world's rarest marine mammal, dropped to 10.

For information, five mass extinctions have occurred in Earth's history and many experts have warned that the sixth mass extinction could occur as a result of human activities since the Age of Exploration. Some scientists even predict that nearly 40 percent of today's species could become extinct by early 2050.

Director of the Otago Palaeogenetics Laboratory, and senior lecturer in Ancient DNA in the Department of Zoology at the University of Otago, New Zealand, Nic Rawlence said the sixth mass extinction made sense.

"And if species don't go extinct globally, species that can't adapt to our rapidly changing world will likely experience range shrinkage, population bottlenecks, local extinctions and become functionally extinct," Nic Rawlence said.

As known, that there are many lesser-known species, which are also at risk. A 2019 review published in the journal Biological Conservation found that more than 40 percent of insect species are threatened with extinction.

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