Over 28,000 species are officially threatened, with more likely to come

These numbers seem small when thinking about the estimated 1 mn species at risk of extinction, but only 1% of the world's animals, fungi and plants have been formally assessed on the IUCN Red List

More than 28,000 species around the world are threatened, according to the Red List of Threatened Species compiled by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The list, updated on Thursday night, has assessed the extinction risk of almost 106,000 species and found more than a quarter are in trouble.

While recent headline-grabbing estimates put as many as 1 million species facing extinction, these were based on approximations, whereas the IUCN uses rigorous criteria to assess each species, creating the world-standard guide to biodiversity extinction risk.

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