Humans Causing Spike in Extinction Risk for 1,700 Animal Species

In the next 50 years a wide swath of amphibians, birds and mammals will face a greater risk of extinction as humans spread across the planet, according to a grim study published in Nature Climate Change on Monday.

About 1,700 species and their habitats will be greatly impacted by human activity by the year 2070, according to the study from ecologists at Yale University.

Those species are predicted to lose 30 to 50 percent of their current habitat. Particularly at risk are the Lombok Cross frog in Indonesia, the Nile lechwe antelope in South Sudan and the pale-browed treehunter bird that makes its home in subtropical or tropical moist mountain forests.

Those species are expected to lose around half of their present-day geographic range in the next 50 years, according to the study’s authors. The researchers projected human growth to make their determinations, including future developments in global society, demographics and economics.

They said from the 19,400 species across the globe they analyzed, 886 species of amphibians, 436 species of birds and 376 species of mammals will see a greater risk of extinction.

https://www.courthousenews.com/humans-causing-spike-in-extinction-risk-for-1700-animal-species/