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BIAZA's top 10

Discussion in 'United Kingdom' started by kiang, 16 Aug 2012.

  1. kiang

    kiang Well-Known Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    12 Aug 2007
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    Location:
    Argyllshire
    BIAZA (the British and Irish zoo federation) has released a top 10 list of the world's most endangered species that would not be surviving without the help of conservation.

    And they are:

    Amur leopard – fewer than 45 of these big cats left in the wild

    Blue-crowned laughingthrush – only 250 mature birds of this Chinese species left in the wild

    Mountain chicken frog – one of the world’s largest species of frog and critically endangered

    Ploughshare tortoise – one of the most threatened and sought after reptiles in the illegal pet trade

    Blue-eyed black lemur – this lemur is critically endangered due to large scale habitat loss and hunting

    Verdcourt's polyalthia tree – this critically endangered species has only been found in three locations in the Kilombero valley in Tanzania

    Scimitar-horned oryx – this antelope is extinct in the wild and dependent on captive breeding

    White-clawed crayfish – around 95% of the population of Britain’s only native freshwater crayfish have been lost

    Polynesian tree snail – 11 species of Polynesian tree snails are extinct in the wild

    Potosi pupfish – this freshwater fish is extinct in the wild

    The list was lifted direct from the article.

    Ten most endangered species list highlights importance of zoos 'working to save' animals from extinction - World - News - Evening Standard
     
  2. Pootle

    Pootle Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    2 Feb 2010
    Posts:
    1,194
    Location:
    Lancashire, UK
    White-clawed Crayfish

    I knew there was a high percentage wipe out of these due to the invasion and plague carried by the red signal crayfish, but 95% is really shocking, that is literally ecologically extinct. Also the increase of the reds is having a dramatic effect on fish eggs with less and less fry being caught in the samples taken yearly (the reds love munching the fish eggs). With fish being pretty much top of the food chain in UK freshwater streams and rivers, a drop in population of fish would drastically change the general ecology of many water ways.