The Addicted Gardener: Plants, animals added to Red List of endangered species
Donna Lane, Columnist
On Dec. 10, the International Union for Conservation of Nature updated its Red List, an inventory of threatened species maintained by the organization and a critical indicator of the health of the world’s biodiversity.
In this Red List update, 31 species were declared extinct. And, of the now 128,918 species listed, more than 35,700 species are currently threatened with extinction. That’s almost 30% of all plant and animal species evaluated by the group. The species listed include all of the world’s fresh water dolphins, 40% of all amphibians, and almost one-third of all oak trees.