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Could Thousands Of Animal Species Become Extinct In 50 Years?

Barbara Fraatz
/
Pixabay
Lechvie

Humans’ expanding use of land could push up to 1,700 animal species to a greater risk of extinction by the year 2070. That’s according to new research from Yale University.

Here’s one example: a golden brown antelope with wavy antlers called the Nile Lechvie.  It scampers along the banks of the Nile River in Sudan and Ethiopia.

Walter Jetz is one of the Yale researchers. He says there’s a large demand for farms in east Africa to grow food for people in the Middle East and Asia.

“The Nile Lechwe is sitting right in the middle of this … The natural habitats of that species -- grasslands and swamps -- are likely going to disappear.”

Jetz and his colleagues looked at places around the world with rapid population growth -- like east Africa, southeast Asia and South America.

“Forest getting changed to cropland or plantation, or grasslands getting converted to agricultural lands. Where these changes will overlap with the distribution of already pretty rare animal species.”

They compared land use projections to what they know about the species who already live there. The Nile Lechwe is already endangered. Lots of other endangered species are in the way of the bulldozers  -- especially birds and frogs.

Jetz says it’s not too late to save them.

“The projections differ a lot depending on whether it’s going to be a very globalized world where countries jointly solve problems. Or whether it will be a divided world where it’s a more nationalist approach and countries will exploit the resources inside their country more rather than working with others.”

So -- Jetz says -- it looks like the future of lots of other species rides on humans’ ability to work together.

Davis Dunavin loves telling stories, whether on the radio or around the campfire. He started in Missouri and ended up in Connecticut, which, he'd like to point out, is the same geographic trajectory taken by Mark Twain.