Global Survey: 20% Of Reptile Species May Soon Be Gone

More than half of all turtle and crocodile species are under threat of extinction, according to a new global review of reptiles, and 20% of all reptiles may go the way of the dodo unless drastic conservation measures are imposed, Erik Stokstad reported for Science magazine.

Photo Insert: More than half of all turtle and crocodile species are under threat of extinction.

Experts evaluated available data for more than 10,000 reptile species and assessed their conservation status as categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

A total of 1829 species are vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered. The researchers did not have enough information to evaluate the conservation status for 1,507 species so they extrapolated for those, assuming a similar portion are at risk of extinction.

Overall, 21% of reptile species are threatened, the researchers reported in Nature magazine. That means a larger fraction of reptile species are faring better than amphibians (41% of which are at risk of extinction) and mammals (25% are at risk), but they are in slightly worse shape than birds (14% are at risk).

In some orders of reptiles, more than 50% of species were deemed threatened, grouped in one of three categories of risk used by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The threat is uneven for various kinds of reptiles. Among 10 major taxonomic groups, turtles and their relatives were most commonly at risk of extinction. Hunting and fishing are particularly dire threats, the researchers say. Perhaps the rarest turtle in the world is the Yangtze giant softshell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei), only three of which are known to survive in the wild today.

The peril is nearly as bad for crocodiles and their close relatives. The critically endangered gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) persists in only a few places in India and Nepal, with fewer than 250 remaining.

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