On the fourth of September 2016, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) changed the giant panda’s conservation status from Endangered to Vulnerable. This iconic animal has shown that conservation efforts involving animals that do not fare well in captivity can actually result in desirable outcomes. However, as their population approaches stability, which animals will organizations and the public decide will need our love and support next?
While the plight of the panda has been echoed all over the planet for decades, it becomes significantly more difficult to get support for saving endangered frogs or small marine creatures. The situation is worse for creatures which present no immediate benefit for humans or our ecosystems on a grand scale. For example, bee conservation is buzzing loud due to the impact it would have on agriculture, and coral reefs are conserved due to their importance in maintaining the reef environments and as tourist attractions.
The animal kingdom is rich with species – 2 million have been described so far, with many more left to discover. Some estimates even reach 10 to 200 million potential species of animals alive today. If the number of species is closer to the higher end of that scale, then it would mean that mankind as a whole has only categorized 0.1% of all living animals.
Trying to remember 200 million species is a pretty daunting task. To help with this, scientists categorize living things into different groups. The kingdom of Animalia contains multiple phyla (singular: phylum), groups distinguished by key features in body plans and genetic relations to one another.
Humans belong to the phylum Chordata, which is determined by the presence of tails, a dorsal nervous system, and a notochord (a flexible dorsal rod). It includes all mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, as well as two other organisms called sea squirts. Chordata consists of approximately 100,000 species – just 5 percent of the known living species of animal on our planet. While there are 35 recognized phyla, a high school student in the western world learning about biology may be taught about 7 to 8 of them, while a person with no biology background may be aware of even fewer.
Enter the IUCN Red List – the world’s most comprehensive inventory of living creatures and their risk of extinction. Currently, the list includes 60,929 animals present from 9 phyla, with 70% of them being chordates. This leaves 26 phyla unaccounted for. Surely with such a high number of animal species, we would expect this list to be significantly larger?
While we would ideally have a more realistic understanding of the number of animal species facing risk of extinction due to human actions, this ideal is currently far out of reach for multiple reasons.
Firstly, there is a significant lack of knowledge in the general public about biodiversity. If the average citizen has heard of nematodes or flatworms, they likely heard of them within the same breath as the words “parasite” or “disease,” and good luck trying to casually bring up Rotifera at your next family get-together. It is completely understandable that not everyone wants to know about every living animal, and it’d take more than a bit of bribery to get people to memorize the differences between arrow worms and acorn worms.
