Indonesia has the most endangered species in the world, at 1,233, and South Africa ranks 20th with 477 species — such as the African penguin and the black rhino — facing extinction, a new analysis reveals.
The island of Madagascar, with 849 endangered species, was the only other African country listed in the top 20 with high numbers of endangered species.
Lemurs, for example, are found only in Madagascar and nearby islands, and 103 of the 107 surviving species face the threat of extinction, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The African penguin, as with the lemur and rhino, is an iconic species which is vanishing, a recent study in the African Journal of Marine Science shows.
In 1910, an estimated 1.45-million African penguins waddled around Dassen Island, off South Africa’s west coast. By 2019, only about 13,600 breeding pairs were left and now South Africa has only seven breeding colonies.
“Many distinctive and unique animal species can be found in SA, but sadly, many of them are now in danger of extinction, including the black rhino, whose global population is thought to be only 1,800,” states the latest analysis of endangered species by Cats.com
Many distinctive and unique animal species can be found in South Africa, but sadly, many of them are now in danger of extinction.
— New analysis of endangered species by country
The authoritative IUCN Red List was the source of their data for the research ranking countries with endangered species.
The US, Australia, Mexico and Brazil were the top five countries with the most endangered species, in descending order after Indonesia.
In South Africa, conservation organisations such as the Endangered Wildlife Trust are working tirelessly to protect its extraordinary biodiversity. For example, EWT has helped to increase the number of cheetahs in South Africa and the number of African wild dogs, from about 300 to 550 in Southern Africa.
They target species of all sizes, from the Pickersgill’s reed frog to the endangered wattle crane, and their conservation status has improved through the efforts of conservation groups such as EWT.
But the global trend is for species to become vulnerable. The climate crisis and human behaviour have had profound effects on land and marine species, affecting habitats, prey and the temperature of the water, with glacial ice melting.
The decline of the African penguin illustrates this. Penguins, many seabirds, whales, seals and other species in the Southern Ocean are among those taking strain, the study in the latest issue of the African Journal of Marine Science by Stellenbosch University scientists found.
In glacial times when sea levels were 100m lower, there may have been more than 20-million African penguins on now-submerged islands along an entirely different coastline, says co-author Prof Guy Midgley, acting director of the School for Climate Studies at Stellenbosch University.
As the world warmed naturally, from 18,000 to 9,000 years ago, they would have had to hop from island to island to survive as the world warmed and sea levels rose.
“It’s a total survivor,” Midgley says of the African penguin’s resilience and flexibility, demonstrated by its island-hopping history.
But now, with rapid human-induced global warming, they are running out of options.
As with plenty of species which used to be abundant under cooler glacial conditions, they are “hanging by a thread”.
Unless global warming and anthropogenic pressures are reduced, scientists warn that African penguins off the Cape coast could be extinct in just three years, followed by many more species.
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