Enjoy them while you can. Only half the world’s animals are left compared with 40 years ago, mainly because of habitat destruction either by locals for farming or by the multinational mineral and timber trades.

The biennial Living Planet Report, released this week by conservation charity WWF, tracked the fate of 10,000 vertebrate species around the world between 1970 and 2010. It found that the total population of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles has declined by 52 per cent in only two generations of humans.

Latin America saw the steepest decline, with animal populations falling by 83 per cent. Animals living in fresh water also fared badly, plummeting by 76 per cent.

“The majority of species extinctions and declines are being driven by human pressures on the environment, both international and local,” says Sam Turvey of the Institute of Biology at the Zoological Society of London, who helps run a scheme to protect unusual species.


“It’s a very challenging issue that requires a lot of effort and attention with complex solutions, given that it’s happening at a global level,” he says.

WWF director Marco Lambertini wrote in the report’s foreword that the solution could be found within ourselves. “We must work to ensure that the upcoming generation can seize the opportunity that we have so far failed to grasp, to close this destructive chapter in our history,” he said.