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NGC 3132: The Southern Ring Nebula

Credits: Hubble Legacy Archive, ESA, NASA, Donald Waid

International Assessment Finds Gopher Tortoise Is Critically Endangered

Tortoise More Endangered Than Previously Thought

The International Union for Conservation of Nature has published a new assessment that revises the gopher tortoise’s status from “vulnerable” to “critically endangered” on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The tortoise’s critically endangered status indicates it is facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild, given current knowledge about its population trends, and recent, current or future threats. The assessment is based on the best available science and estimates that gopher tortoise populations have declined by approximately 80% over the past 120 years — just three tortoise generations. The assessment cites research that predicts 69%-91% additional future declines over the next two generations. Currently, there are no monitored populations that have increasing population growth rates. Gopher tortoises face a variety of threats that have driven these dramatic declines. Habitat destruction has reduced the tortoise’s longleaf pine habitat to less than 3% of its original extent. The threats driving tortoise declines and habitat destruction are not expected to abate in the future. Rather, they are getting worse...

Read more: International Assessment Finds Gopher Tortoise Is Critically Endangered - Center for Biological Diversity