More than one in five reptile species are in danger of extinction, but no one seems to care. Reptiles are judged to have poor looks and therefore face extinction more quickly because they are ‘less charismatic’ than mammals or birds
According to a 15-year research project, a large number of reptiles are highly vulnerable to extinction. The project involved 961 scientists from 24 countries and looked at data on 10,196 reptile species.
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In short, there are only about 11,000 known species on the planet. Scientists evaluated the risk and came to the conclusion that 21.1 percent of all the creatures are in danger.
US zoologist Bruce Young co-directed the research, which was carried out with assistance from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The results are published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature.
“This is the first time this analysis has been carried out in the world. Reptiles are less charismatic than mammals or birds. There’s not much love for snakes,” Young said, quoted by SINDOnews from the metro.co.uk page, Wednesday (1/6/2022).
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It is now known that reptiles are in a worse situation than birds, as 13.6 percent of their species are threatened with extinction. However, reptiles fared better than mammals and amphibians whose extinction rates were between 25.4 percent and 40.7 percent, respectively.
