(Click picture to see Guardian's slideshow)

Guardian UK: (h/t GM)

The conservation group's annual Red List of threatened species, published today, found that the extinction crisis had escalated in the last year with 16,306 species now at the highest levels of extinction threat, equivalent to almost 40% of all species in the survey.

A quarter of all mammals, a third of all amphibians and one in eight birds on the 2007 IUCN Red List are in jeopardy.

More than 180 species have been added since 2006 to the ranks of those classified as endangered, critically endangered or vulnerable.

IUCN director general Julia Marton-Lefèvre warned that this year's list showed how efforts to protect species were inadequate and that a concerted effort by all levels of society was needed to prevent their widespread extinction. Read on...