Globally threatened corals
The World Conservation Union included coral on its annual Red List of Threatened Species for the first time this year.
The World Conservation Union (known as IUCN) included coral on its annual Red List of Threatened Species for the first time this year.
Climate change is one of the main threats to coral, and three coral species are included in the IUCN's "critically endangered" category, representing the most severely threatened species. The list, released in September, also documents that vulture populations in Africa and Asia have rapidly declined during the past 8 years, mainly because the birds feed on carcasses of livestock treated with the drug diclofenac.
The 16,306 globally threatened species on the 2007 Red List include one in four mammals, one in eight birds, one-third of all amphibians, and more than two-thirds of the world's plants assessed by the IUCN. The IUCN network includes 10,000 scientists and experts from 181 countries.
