|
MEXICO CITY, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- The giraffe, the world's tallest land mammal, is now at risk of extinction as its global population plummeted by nearly 40 percent in the past 30 years, warned conservationists.
Its numbers have dropped from around 155,000 in 1985 to 97,000 in 2015, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The conservation status of giraffes was previously listed as "of least concern," but is now classed as "vulnerable" to extinction after the organization updated its global red list of threatened species recently.
Conservationists at a biodiversity meeting Wednesday in Mexico blamed habitat loss, civil unrest, poaching and ecological changes as the major threats to giraffes' existence.
Everyone assumes giraffes are everywhere, but their numbers have been plummeting, said Julian Fennessy, who co-chaired the IUCN giraffe specialist group, referring to what's happening to the creatures as a "silent extinction."
The species currently remains widespread across southern and eastern Africa, with smaller isolated populations in west and central Africa, according to the list.
The IUCN proposed typical conservation measures, such as habitat management and protection through law enforcement and community-based conservation initiatives.
