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Approaching the end

Approaching the end nearly one-fourth of the world's species of mammals are threatened with extinction, and about half of those may be gone in as little as a decade, according to the most complete global analysis of endangered animal species ever compiled. The report, which several conservationists described as surprising and frightening, was released recently by the iucn -World Conservation Union, the recently re-named international body that has collected endangered species data for more than 35 years.

Unlike previous versions of the group's so called red list of endangered species, the updated version uses a newly adopted set of objective criteria of endangerment, scientists said. The new system suggests that previous estimates of the number of endangered species worldwide may have been too low.

In a statement released recently, us interior secretary Bruce Babbitt said, "It dearly indicates that, unless people of all nations make extraordinary efforts, we face a looming natural catastrophe, of almost biblical proportions.'

This year's list is the first to evaluate 4,600 known species of mammals, the class of animals that include all warm-blooded, milk-producing animals. It finds 1,096 of these at risk. And it concludes that about a third of 275 primate species examined are also at risk, nearly three times the percentage previously believed.

George B Rabb, director of Chicago's Brookfield Zoo and chairman of the Swiss-based iucn 's species survival commission, which compiled the data from more than 500 scientists, said the main factor threatening species survival is fragmentation and degradation of habitats by humans. Pollution is also a major factor, Rabb said, especially for freshwater fish.

The iucn -World Conservation Union puts threatened animals into three categories,

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